Bruins Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark are reunited. Is it the right move?

May 24, 2024

BRIGHTON, Mass. — The following assets, in all likelihood, would not prompt Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney to raise both arms in excitement:

Sixth-round pick, 2023
Fourth-round pick, 2024
Third-round pick, 2022

They were the trade returns in the past year for, respectively, Mackenzie Blackwood, Adin Hill and Ville Husso. Blackwood, 26, has 152 games of NHL experience. Hill, 27, backstopped the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2022-23. The 28-year-old Husso was the No. 1 goalie for the Detroit Red Wings last season.

None of them has won the Vezina Trophy like Linus Ullmark did last year. Such an award would surely add a premium to Ullmark’s trade value.

Consider, however, what the Golden Knights received for Marc-Andre Fleury on July 27, 2021, less than one month after the then-36-year-old won the Vezina: Mikael Hakkarainen, a fifth-round pick in 2018. Hakkarainen, 25, is retired. He never played an NHL game.

All of this is to say that for whatever reason, the goalie trade market historically favors the acquiring party. Sweeney, in other words, was unlikely to receive anything close to Ullmark’s 2022-23 superlatives — such as 33.44 goals saved above expectation, per Clear Sight Analytics — had he put the ace up for sale.

You could make the case that wheeling Ullmark for futures could have given the Bruins $5 million of cap space prior to July 1. Perhaps Sweeney, then, would have applied the savings toward help up front — specifically at center. Ryan O’Reilly, for example, signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Nashville Predators. (The wisdom of a four-year investment in a 32-year-old with 991 games of NHL wear and tear is another matter.)

The resulting compromise, though, would have been one the GM did not want to visit: a goaltending tandem of Jeremy Swayman and Brandon Bussi. Swayman has appeared in 88 NHL games. The next one Bussi plays in will be his first. That is not a bulletproof template for a team that, despite its offseason exits, remains otherwise designed for 2023-24 postseason qualification.

So Sweeney stuck with what he knew. An Ullmark-Swayman duo, best in show last year, gives the Bruins the best chance to win. That is especially so following the retirement of Patrice Bergeron, the trades of Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno, the uncertain status of David Krejci and the exits of Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Clifton, Garnet Hathaway, Tomas Nosek and Dmitry Orlov.

That required the sides to proceed to arbitration after negotiations produced nothing. The award — a one-year, $3.475 million judgment following a July 30 hearing — called for discomfort. Hearings often do. Teams in pursuit of budget-friendly awards do not pull punches when making their arguments before an arbitrator.

“The biggest thing was living day by day, understanding that what you hear might not be the truth at all times,” Swayman said on Tuesday at Warrior Ice Arena, one week following his award. “It’s a business. I wanted to make sure that whatever was thrown my way, I was going to be able to attack it with a good mindset and making sure that at the end of the day, I was doing everything I could to be a Boston Bruin. Now that I am here today and I am a Boston Bruin, I couldn’t be happier. There’s no ill will on the process. Because I understand I’m not the first player to go through it, and not the last. But I definitely don’t wish it upon any of my friends or teammates moving forward. And I don’t want to do it ever again as well.”

The position will be stout for one season. Swayman will require a new deal after 2023-24. Ullmark is signed through 2024-25. For now, the Bruins are projected to have the fourth-highest cap hit ($8.475 million) at the position in the league. They will be behind only the Florida Panthers ($14.5 million between Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight), Tampa Bay Lightning ($10.275 million between Andrei Vasilevskiy and Jonas Johansson) and Seattle Kraken ($9.4 million between Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger), per CapFriendly.

The Bruins believe this is money well spent. Ullmark is at risk of regression. But the 30-year-old should remain a high-end goalie, more resilient after his Round 1 cratering.

Swayman, 24, is still growing. The Alaska native stayed in Boston this summer for the first time as a professional. On the ice, he’s been working with goaltending development coach Mike Dunham. Head performance coach Kevin Neeld and assistant performance coach Tim Lebbossiere have managed his work in the gym.

“I’ve had these hands-on professionals working with me every day and making sure the form is good, making sure my repetition’s good, nutrition — everything that goes into an offseason training program,” said Swayman. “Just having that extra touch with guys that are right there with you every day has just elevated my summer a little more and given me confidence. I’m so looking forward to camp because I’ve worked hard.”

Jim Montgomery strayed from his rotation in the playoffs. It was the first-year coach’s most significant error.

As such, Montgomery cannot help but be more aware of the rotation’s significance in 2023-24. Assuming no changes in performance, the two will share the net again. They are fine with that.

“We know that if we slump in games, the other guy’s going to take that net,” Swayman said. “That’s what’s going to elevate our level every single game. That’s something that could get overlooked from a viewer’s standpoint. But on the ice, he and I know that if we’re not elevating our game every single day, one of the other guys is going to take over the net, we’re not going to get each other better and we’re not going to help this team get better. So that kind of mentality that we’ve had has taken care of itself. Because we know that if we compete with each other to the highest level, we’re going to give our team a chance to win any given night.”

(Photo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman: Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)

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