Have the Bruins already made their decision on pending free agent Jake DeBrusk?
For over half a year, Bruins winger and pending unrestricted free agent Jake DeBrusk made it known again and again that his preference is and was to stay with Boston on a long-term extension.
Now, whether or not that interest was mutual was anybody’s guess. Whenever DeBrusk’s pending free agency came up, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney kept his comments relatively surface-level. That’s not all that out of the ordinary for Sweeney, who has repeatedly said that he will not negotiate through the media, but Sweeney’s comments on DeBrusk felt especially mundane and non-committal.
And speaking at management’s break-up day, Sweeney continued that trend for the most part, but seemingly put the onus on DeBrusk’s camp with the sides still not close on a deal just over a month away from No. 74 hitting the open market for the first time in his career.
“Negotiation is a two-way street,” Sweeney said when asked about DeBrusk and a ‘path’ towards a deal. “We took an aggressive position with Jake. No different than other players that have chosen not to re-sign and explore, that’s within his right, certainly at this time of the year. Do I see a path [to DeBrusk staying]? Yeah, there’s a path, I told him that at our exit meetings.”
What Sweeney meant by ‘aggressive position’ is open to interpretation. Especially when Sweeney mentions that it’s no different than what they’ve done with past free agents this close to July 1. That second line is potentially noteworthy in the context that DeBrusk’s situation may be the closest thing the Bruins have to the 2020 negotiations and eventual split between themselves and Torey Krug.
Entering the final year of his contract with the Bruins back in 2019-20, Krug made it known that he wanted to stay with Boston. It’s believed that the Bruins made a competitive offer before Krug’s contract year officially began. But the offer was later pulled, negotiations never resumed, and Krug hit the open market and eventually landed in St. Louis on a seven-year deal worth over $45 million. Krug would later admit that he was ‘not close’ to re-signing with the Bruins, and it’s worth wondering if the Bruins and DeBrusk’s camp are on a similar path here given the polarizing nature of the player.
If the Bruins were ‘aggressive’ with DeBrusk, did that mean that they had established a value that they were not going to push themselves over given their needs elsewhere? Recent extensions for the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel and the Flyers’ Owen Tippett — as well as DeBrusk’s strong postseason run — may have pushed the dollar figure above the B’s comfort area. ‘Aggressive’ could also mean that the Bruins had a deadline of sorts on their offer and that the deal was off the table once it passed.
DeBrusk himself, meanwhile, and in shades of Krug in 2020, was pretty open with his disappointment that a deal did not get done before the end of the season.
“Yeah, but I understand business is business,” DeBrusk told me when I asked if he was surprised at the lack of progress on an extension. “I’ve been here for a while. I’ve seen lots of deals get done with guys and things, so I kind of understand what their side is and how they usually operate. So it wasn’t necessarily like [I was] completely surprised, but I thought it’d be done.
“I thought that things would all work out earlier, I guess.”
Given DeBrusk’s feelings on the matter, as well as the obvious answers within the answers of Sweeney’s feelings on the talks, it’s entirely possible that the Bruins have already made up their mind on DeBrusk’s future with the Bruins. But with the ‘path’ still being there, Sweeney did his best to remain diplomatic.
“He’s been a big part of our group, he elevated in the playoffs, and I would prefer to have Jake DeBrusk as part of our team,” Sweeney said. “But he has some opportunity in front of him that he may pursue otherwise. I don’t have a clear answer for you today. But I know the position we’ve taken [and] we feel very comfortable, but it didn’t get to the finish line.”
Now comes seeing if that finish line presents itself by July 1. If they even want it to.
What Bruins general manager Don Sweeney had to say about his goaltenders
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – APRIL 30: Jeremy Swayman winks during the second period of Game Five of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Maple Leafs at TD Garden on April 30, 2024. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
In the case of Swayman, who will be a restricted free agent (he’s arbitration-eligible once again but the Bruins don’t wanna go down that road again), Sweeney made it clear that getting a deal done is the club’s top priority this summer.
“Well it’s clearly a priority, and Jeremy [Swayman] knows, I told him, he took us to arbitration just for clarity,” Sweeney said when discussing a Swayman extension and what happened between the sides a year ago (something brought up by both parties multiple times now). “Again, that’s part of it. It’s no different than Trent Frederic and not being able to settle. Sometimes those things happen, of course, and it’s not an indication of whether or not we didn’t believe in Jeremy Swayman or whether or not we don’t think he could have been part of our future.”
Sweeney also confirmed a report from earlier in the year that indicated that the Bruins and Swayman had opened up extension talks. (That same report indicated that it could be a big-money deal for Swayman, too.)
“We clearly engaged in conversation during regular season to define the longer term extension, we haven’t gotten there yet, it’s a priority now and it will continue to be a priority until we get that across the finish line,” Sweeney revealed. “He’s a big part of our current team and our record in playoffs and our future. Our goaltending is arguably one of the best tandems in the National Hockey League, and they proved that during the course of the season. They put us in the situation most nights to have an opportunity to win. The priority will be to find a landing spot with Jeremy.”
SUNRISE, FLORIDA – MAY 08: Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins warms up prior to Game Two of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on May 08, 2024 in Sunrise, Florida. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
And Swayman, for what it’s worth, has no interest in leaving the Bruins. He’s even staying in Boston for the summer, in case you are wondering if the man who just rollerbladed by you is indeed Jeremy Swayman, there’s a non-zero chance that it was. So while this negotiation could get a bit laborious, there’s no chance that it ends with Swayman deciding that he’s had enough with Sweeney and the Bruins and demanding out.
But it is going to cost the Bruins a pretty penny. And for a whole lotta years.
Based on how Swayman played during the 2024 postseason, it’s fair to think that a Swayman long-term contract could check in between $7-8 million per season. That, with Ullmark entering the final year of a contract that comes with a $5 million cap hit, could be a massive problem for a B’s squad with a bunch of needs they want to address. Whether or not Sweeney wants to think that I’m on to something with that dollar figure.
When I asked Sweeney if it was realistic or feasible to commit $12 or $13 million in goaltending given their desire to address other areas of their roster, Sweeney instead thanked me for negotiating on Swayman’s behalf and complimented (I think?) my reverse engineering of the cap math before answering.
“We’re gonna find a landing spot with Jeremy Swayman, and if we can make the math work, we’re going to have the best tandem,” Sweeney told me. “If we can’t, we’re going to explore, and for Linus, he may come to us and change his mind, that may occur as well. Right now, we’re very happy to have signed Linus, and in a perfect world, we would keep the tandem because I think it’s damn good. But we’re going to explore opportunities.
“My phone’s going to ring, I’m going to make calls. That’s just what the job requires.”
Apr 2, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) makes a save during the third period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. (Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports)
I do want to point out that my question to Sweeney began with the acknowledgement that Ullmark seems pretty content in Boston and sounds like someone who would exercise his no-trade clause to remain in Boston if given the option. So Sweeney noting that Ullmark ‘may change his mind’ could either be a confirmation that Ullmark blocked a trade at the 2024 trade deadline or that he’s let the Bruins know that he’ll do the same this summer. Or it could be Sweeney answering the possibility of my semi-hypothetical presented to him.
“Those things will take care of themselves,” Sweeney said. “No conversation I’m going to have with a player in terms of what we’re trying to do, until we have to have a conversation, is really going to go public. I hope you all respect that because ultimately that’s as a player, a former player, I would hope would happen.”
Ullmark seems to be on the same page as Sweeney here, really, as he’s had no interest in sharing the details of his no-trade list whenever asked. I mean, he won’t even give hints about the teams on his list, and he wouldn’t even bite on assumptions about the list. All we know is that his no-trade list drops from 16 teams to 15 teams this summer.
“At times, unfortunately, things start to leak out. That’s your job, you guys do a hell of a job of figuring those things out and piecing them together,” Sweeney said. “Some guys are really wrong, but it doesn’t stop you from throwing it out there and that’s okay. It’s good for the business overall. It’s good for hockey, in terms of drawing, attention and eyes to it. So I understand.”
(Not gonna lie, my response to that part of the answer is one big question mark. For the record, I’ve said for almost a calendar year that Ullmark had no interest in waiving his no-trade clause to accept a trade out of Boston. And fans and readers crushed me for that all the while and I held firm on that belief. So if there’s a problem with that reporting, I don’t know what to say to that because, well, I’ve been 100 percent correct to date.)
Feb 22, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) against the Calgary Flames during the second period at Scotiabank Saddledome. (Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports)
But assuming that the Bruins realize that they have to make an Ullmark trade, Sweeney doesn’t necessarily think that the Bruins will be dealing from a disadvantaged position, which would’ve been the case in 2023.
“I think that goaltenders trade hands, you know, one went for the ninth overall [pick] one year,” Sweeney said, referencing the Cory Schneider to New Jersey trade that happened back in 2013. “So, it’s really what teams needs and what the market will bear, and ultimately it comes down to supply and demand, what a team wants and what you might have, ultimately, that generally shapes the trade market. There isn’t a lot of goaltenders in exchange, so it’s a small sample size to begin with, but arguably, they change and what other teams need will set the return.”
Referencing the first-round pick that moved from New Jersey to Vancouver some 11 years ago is interesting in the sense that a first-round pick may be what the Bruins are angling for in a potential Ullmark trade. That’s a respectable ask out of the gate given what the Bruins lack (high-end draft picks) and how they view Ullmark in terms of his importance to their roster.
The list of teams looking for goaltending help this summer is expected to feature the likes of the Kings, Devils, Senators, and Maple Leafs, while the Hurricanes and Oilers are two teams of note that could also be on the hunt for some help in goal this summer.
