Brad Marchand publicly defends unsigned goalie Jeremy Swayman

Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand is used to riling up people both on and off the ice.

Today though, he played the calming role of mediator for both the Bruins and for unsigned goaltender Jeremy Swayman.

When asked about all the drama surrounding Swayman and the Bruins, Marchand gave a level headed response:

Read below for our earlier report on the contentious negotiations between Swayman and the Bruins.

Yesterday was quite a day of drama for the Boston Bruins.

After team president Cam Neely insinuated that the team had offered unsigned RFA goaltender Jeremy Swayman a $64 million contract, Swayman's agent Lewis Gross flat out called Neely a liar.

“We are extremely disappointed,” Gross posted on Instagram. “This was not fair to Jeremy. We will take a few days to discuss where we go from here.”

Gross and his agency SPM hockey then posted a 'Marc Andre Fleury' inspired Instagram photo that showed Swayman being stabbed in the back with a bear labelled 'Cam Neely'. You'll, of course, remember when Fleury's agent Allan Walsh posted a similar photo but with a sword labelled 'Peter DeBoer' stabbing Fleury in the back.

Check it out:

So... clearly things aren't going well in Beantown.

How did we get here?

How did Neely and the Bruins fumble this negotiation so poorly? They've had over a year to sign Swayman to a fair deal. They went ahead and traded Linus Ullmark, giving Swayman all the negotiating power. Did they... did the Bruins just think that Swayman would sign a sweetheart deal because he's a nice guy? I truly don't understand the strategy here, if there is one in play at all. To me, Neely sounds like a man who's frustrated with the position that he put himself in. And this is becoming and all too familiar situation with the Bruins.

Of course, I'm being just a bit glib because any Bruins fan will tell you that the real problem lies with owner Jeremy Jacobs. The long-time B's owner has a long history of strained negotiations, due mostly to his cheapness. Yesterday, Bruins insider Jimmy Murphy reported that Swayman's insistence on 'resetting the market for NHL goalies' irked Jacobs and now Jacobs is taking things personally.

"Swayman’s stance on behalf of the NHL goalie fraternity, and in effect, the NHLPA, likely didn’t sit well with Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who, in the eyes of many around the NHL, is a ‘Hawk’ within the NHL Board of Governors," said Murphy in his latest post for RG.org.

It's believed these are the comments that set Jacobs off:

“The answer I’m gonna give you this year, is that I’ve educated myself, and I understand the business side of it all. It’s given me a complete new mindset of understanding the business and how to react to it. I understand the cap is going up and where it will be in years. I understand my comparables and how I can’t ruin the goalie market for guys that are gonna be in my shoes down the line. I went to the school of Business for the university of Maine, and I love the business side of it all.”

- Jeremy Swayman

Imagine reading that and thinking, 'I'm going to jeopardize my entire team's roster make up just to screw this guy.'

“I would imagine when he got word of that, he wasn’t too happy,” a veteran NHL executive told Murphy. “He has always been and still is an influential figure in the NHL Board of Governors. He is the main reason we have an NHL salary cap, and when one of his players is in a contract battle, he takes a stance for the players. I just can’t see that going well.”

Read below for our earlier report on this story, published today by Hockey Feed staff writer Jonathan Larrivee.

Things just got very ugly between restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman and his current team, the Boston Bruins.

Swayman and the Bruins have been deadlocked in a highly publicized contract dispute, one that appears to have no end in sight, and on Monday morning things turned ugly as the Bruins began openly negotiating with Swayman and his representative through the media.

Things took an ominous turn during the Bruins media availability on Monday when general manager Don Sweeney and head coach Jim Montgomery both made comments that indicated that Swayman was unlikely to be the team's starting goaltender on opening night of the regular season. That was bad enough, but things took an even worse turn when it was time for team president Cam Neely to step up to the microphone.

When Neely was asked about the situation surrounding Swayman, he effectively leaked what the Bruins' latest offer to Swayman had been. Neely didn't explicitly state a number of years, but did indicate how much Swayman stood to earn following the Bruins most recent offer.

"I know that I’d have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now," said Neely revealing how much the Bruins have offered the goaltender.

While Neely did not go into detail about the offer, you have to believe that what he is referencing here is an 8 year contract that would carry an average annual value and cap hit of $8 million per season. That would work out to the total of $64 million that Neely has mentioned, which to be fair to the Bruins is a substantial offer.

That being said it also clearly hasn't been enough to get Swayman to sign on the dotted line, and Neely provided some insight as to why that might be the case. Swayman has previously made statements indicating that he is trying to set the market, not only for himself, but for goaltenders across the National Hockey League. When Neely was asked if that was indeed still the case, the Bruins president answered in the affirmative.

"I do," said Neely.

This one has definitely turned ugly and there is unfortunately no end in sight.