When it comes to contract negotiations, Bruins GM Don Sweeney likes to keep the details to himself. His comments are usually legalistic and harmless. This approach has typically helped close deals, including big deals for David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.

Cam Neely chose a different route on Monday.

Clearly frustrated with how negotiations with Jeremy Swayman are going — and more than a little annoyed by the growing narrative that casts the Bruins as alligator-armed and uncommunicative — Neely put the club’s cards on the table.

“I don’t want to dwell on his demands, but I have 64 million reasons why I would play now,” Neely said while sitting at the podium with CEO Charlie Jacobs, Sweeney and coach Jim Montgomery at the Legends Club in the Garden.

It doesn’t take Stephen Hawking to figure out that this number impacts the eight-year maximum NHL contract with an annual salary of $8 million, a term and number that some in the media have speculated the club would not be willing to expand. Swayman’s camp is widely believed to be seeking $9.5 million over eight years.

In a statement released Monday evening, Swayman’s agent rejected the suggestion that such an offer was on the table.

“I normally don’t make statements or discuss negotiations through the media. However, in this case I feel that I have to defend my client. At today’s press conference the figure was 64 million US dollars. This was the first time this figure was discussed in our negotiations. “No offer of this amount was made prior to the press conference,” Gross said in the statement.

“We are extremely disappointed. That wasn’t fair to Jeremy. We will take a few days to discuss what happens next.”

It remains to be seen whether Neely’s statement was the check on the shoulder needed to end the stalemate or whether it permanently damaged the relationship between the player and the team. But no matter how the offer was communicated or not, it now seems impossible for the team to walk away from an 8×8 deal. The club rejected further escalation on Monday evening.

For the new NHL, Neely delivered a broadside reminiscent of former B’s GM Harry Sinden’s greatest hits. But instead of telling the world why the team wouldn’t drop a boatload of cash on a player’s turf, Neely put his name on a pretty fair offer. That number would place Swayman behind only Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million AAV), Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9.5 million), Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5 million) and Ilya Sorokin ($8.5 million) among active goaltenders. 25 million US dollars).

Of those four, only Sorokin has not won a Vezina Trophy or Stanley Cup. And while most goalies assume that Swayman could very well earn that kind of equipment in the near future, the fact is that Swayman played a maximum of 44 games in a season last season. So far, he’s benefited from rotating two goalies with Linus Ullmark, who won the Vezina in 2022-23 and came off the bench last June, so Swayman gets more games – and gets paid like a No. 1 goalie. The number apparently on the table would pay him like a very good No. 1.

Could Neely’s bluntness backfire and further diffuse the hard feelings that seem to stem from last year’s arbitration case? Secure. But let’s be honest. Good play didn’t get the club very far in a long-term contract. The B’s could have opted for a two-year deal when Swayman’s camp took the team to arbitration last year when Swayman was awarded a $3.475 million contract, but he opted for the one-year deal, presumably to secure a long-term deal. Sweeney could have filed for arbitration last offseason, knowing full well that arbitration rewards a player for what he has already done, not for what he might do in the future.

However, he did not resubmit a request for arbitration. Sweeney and Neely both believe Swayman is the real deal, it just depends on what they think the price is for a front-line goalie. Neely believes the Swayman camp is trying to reshape the market for goalies. The camp of Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent next season, is undoubtedly watching these negotiations closely.

But regardless of whether or not there is a difference in philosophies between the two camps, Neely feels the B’s negotiated in good faith from the start.

“Don did a really good job with the initial offers to the players. One of the things we talked about when he got the job was that as a former player, I’m not a big fan of low-ball and high-ball and find it somewhere in the middle,” Neely said. “It’s like, OK, get the right comp, get the right comp group, put the right offer on the table. And I think Don’s past has shown that he can close deals. This one is a little trickier. That’s all. I firmly believe that Jeremy wants to play here. I asked him directly: Do you want to play here? And he does. I believe they will get a deal done. It is unfortunate that it is not ready today.”

Although neither Neely nor Sweeney ever actually made this point, both emerged as players as the Bruins cemented their reputation as cheap players. After a while, Boston—despite being arguably one of the best hockey cities in America—became a place where free agents no longer wanted to travel. It took years to move on from that reputation, a process that was ultimately accelerated when free agent Zdeno Chara chose the Bruins in 2006.

Perhaps some of that knowledge was behind Neely showing his hand on Monday. We’ll see if the bold statement breaks the stalemate.

But for now, Joonas Korpisalo is your starting goalie for the season opener in Florida in a week.

Originally published: September 30, 2024 at 3:12 p.m