Insider claims Jeremy Swayman will turn down Bruins’ latest offer and exposes his salary demand!

This is one more day in the contract dispute between the Boston Bruins and their restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman and unfortunately, it is not getting any better.

On Wednesday morning, insider Elliotte Friedman provided an update on the Bruins and Swayman saga on his 32 Thoughts podcast on Sportsnet and revealed how the goalie could very well refuse the latest offer from the club.

“I’m not convinced Swayman is gonna take 8x8. I don’t think we’re close enough for a deal.”

The idea of a $64 million contract has come from the Bruins themselves as team president Cam Neely insinuated that the club had offered such a deal to the goalie. The player’s agent, Lewis Gross, called Neely a liar and stated that this offer had never been previously referenced in their negotiations.

Friedman also revealed Swayman’s allegded salary demands and how this may be why an agreement has yet to be made between the goalie and the Bruins.

“His initial stake in the ground was Charlie McAvoy: 8 x $9.5 (million). It is harder to figure out where Swayman is, but I do believe he’s come down.”

Friedman added: “My opinion is he’s around 9, high 8’s. That is purely my opinion based on everything I’ve heard over the last day.”

If Friedman’s correct, this means that botn camps remain between $500,000 and $1 million apart at this time in the dispute. And if the salary demand from Swayman are also true as Friedman implies, it means that the netminder believes he deserves to become one of the Bruins’ highest-paid players. Sitting just behind David Pastrnak and McAvoy.

The saga is getting uglier and uglier, even prompting trade rumours. While Friedman still believes a deal gets done between the Bruins and Swayman, he maintains that, at this time, both sides feel that they have compromised already. The insider couldn’t say who would be the one to facilitate an agreement in the end.

“Someone’s gotta move again to get this done,” he said. “And, I dont know where it’s gonna come from.”

No one needs to be reminded that the clock is ticking to get a deal done. They have until December 1st to hammer out a contract or Swayman will be ineligible to play during the 2024-2025 season. There is still time, but I’m not sure fans can take much more pressure in this saga…

"What do the Bruins do from there? Where do they go, because like I said, I think they want to keep him. So what happens in that case? I don’t have a good answer," said Friedman.