Terrible update on Swayman from the Bruins top brass.

The Boston Bruins top brass has just commented on the status of restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman, and it sounds like the expectation is now that Swayman will not start the season with the rest of his team.

Both Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery were asked about Swayman on Monday morning and both men gave answers that fans in Boston probably would rather not be hearing right now.

In the case of Sweeney, the Bruins GM flat out admitted that it was now "unlikely" that Swayman would be ready to start the regular season for the Bruins after missing all of training camp and the majority of the preseason as well. That of course doesn't exclude the possibility that Swayman could still join the team at some point after the start of the regular season, but that is obviously a less than ideal scenario for all parties involved in this contract dispute.

The comments from head coach Montgomery weren't any better, with the Bruins bench boss acknowledging that his starting goaltender when the season begins appears to be Joonas Korpisalo. Korpisalo is of course a perfectly capable National Hockey League level goaltender, but there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the Bruins would ideally want Swayman to start the season for them rather than Korpisalo.

The Bruins had a previous contract dispute with Swayman go through arbitration and the goaltender emerged from that process expressing that he had heard things from his team that no player should ever have to hear. At this stage of the preseason and at this stage of the negotiation it is hard not to wonder if that previous contract dispute may have played a role in negatively impacting this one, which currently has no end in sight.