Bruins, Goalie Jeremy Swayman Don’t Seem To Agree On Whether $64 Million Deal Was Ever Offered

We've got a $64 million "He said, B's said" situation involving the Boston Bruins and goaltender Jeremy Swayman.

Swayman was part of the league's best goalie tandem along with former Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark for the last few seasons. However, the Bruins traded Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators for a first-round pick, center Mark Kastelic, and (crucially as we'll get to in a second) netminder Joonas Korpisalo.

This set a path for Swayman to go from being the Bruins 1B goalie to being their unquestioned starter, however, there's a problem.

Swayman is a restricted free-agent and he and the Bruins still can't come to an agreement on a new contract with about a week to go before the season begins and things have really gotten wild in this saga.

On Monday, Bruins team president Cam Neely addressed the media as it appears increasingly likely that Korpisalo will backstop the Bruins on opening night and said that the 24-year-old goalie has "64 million reasons" to be playing at the moment, according to Matt Porter of The Boston Globe.

Yup, it sure does sound like 8 years, at $8 million per, which would make Swayman among the highest-paid goalies in the NHL, and it's a big step up from the one-year, $3.475 million deal he took for last season.

Now why would he turn that down? That seems more than fair for what Swayman has done on the ice, so why wouldn't he slap a John Hancock on that deal as soon as it was slid in front of him?

Well, Swayman's camp says that's because they never received any $64 million offer.

That's right, that's a statement from Swayman's agent Lewis Gross claiming that the number "64 million" hadn't come up in the negotiations before.

So, is this a phantom $64 million?

Only the Bruins and Swayman's camp know, but it's safe to say that as the start of the season rapidly approaches some serious chess-playing is going to happen.

After this latest twist, the rumors that Swayman may formally request a trade are starting to heat up. 

It sure seems like this situation could get even more interesting over the next few days.