While the contractual situation of goaltender Jeremy Swayman does not seem to be about to be resolved, the Boston Bruins have decided to have their back.
• Also read: Bruins offer to Swayman finally known
• Also read: Swayman’s agent hits back at Neely
The team claimed Czech goaltender Jiri Patera off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. He will thus support Joonas Korpisalo who will be the team’s starting goalkeeper for the first match of the 2024-2025 season.
Patera played in the Vegas Golden Knights organization last season during which he split his time between the National League (NHL) and the American League (AHL). With the big club, he played only six games, recording one victory while having an efficiency percentage of 0.893 and a goals against average of 3.98.
The tense negotiations between Swayman and the Massachusetts organization have been at the heart of the news in the NHL for several months. Those took another step forward this week when team president Cam Neely said in a press conference that Swayman had “64 million reasons to play right now.”
The American goalkeeper’s agent Lewis Gross contradicted Neely’s claims in a social media post, saying his client had never received an offer of this magnitude and lamented that negotiations had not gone public.
According to information from Frank Seravalli of the site Daily Faceoffthe Bruins would have instead offered an annual salary of $7.8 million to Swayman while the goaltender would like to obtain around $8.5 million per year.
Last year, Swayman posted a 25-10-8 record, a 2.53 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in 44 games.
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