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Jeremy Swayman reflects on tough season with Bruins: ‘I take accountability’
"I want to be a top goaltender in this league, and I know that I have the ability to do that."
Just about everything that could have gone wrong did for the Boston Bruins in 2024-25.
Be it a critical injuries, a dearth of skill and scoring punch, free-agent whiffs, and a porous defensive structure, a flawed Bruins team didn’t have the personnel — or mettle — to prevent a plummet to the depths of the NHL standings.
But in a season where several foundational strengths on Boston’s roster eroded, a stark regression in net might have been the development that snuffed out any hope of another playoff run this spring.
When the Bruins and Jeremy Swayman finally closed out a drama-filled offseason by signing an eight-year, $66 million contract in October, the expectation was that Boston had their franchise fixture in place for the foreseeable future.
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Despite the added pressure this season as Boston’s unquestioned No. 1 netminder following Linus Ullmark’s trade to Ottawa, Swayman’s latest stretch of play offered up hope that the best was yet to come.
Swayman was brilliant as the team’s go-to goalie in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, sporting a .933 save percentage over 12 games. His 13.3 goals saved above expected led all goalies during the playoffs (per MoneyPuck), even though he only appeared in two total rounds.
But those sterling numbers didn’t translate over to the 2024-25 campaign, with Swayman’s dip in play further hindering a team operating with little margin for error.
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After sporting a career .919 save percentage in his first four seasons with Boston, Swayman closed out the 2024-25 campaign with an .892 save percentage.
While the defense in front of him left a lot to be desired, Swayman also ranked 63rd out of 73 qualified goalies (10 games played) with a -9.1 goals saved above expected (per MoneyPuck).
In a year where a flawed Bruins team needed Swayman to be close to perfect to remain competitive, the 26-year-old goalie was anything but.
“I take accountability. I wanted to play better,” Swayman said Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena. “I know that I can play better, and that’s something that I can’t wait to work on. And this team is going to be a lot different next year with what we learned from this year, and we’ve got a lot to look forward to.”
While Swayman said he had no issues with the heavier workload that presented itself in 2024-25 (58 games played – 14 more than his previous career-high), he also didn’t want to dwell on a turbulent offseason — one that led to him missing all of training camp as both the Bruins and his camp sparred over said contract.
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“One thing that I really want to be is a guy and a goalie that can stay in the moment and really focus on the here and now and not let past stuff affect my present,” Swayman said when asked if the contract and the lack of camp reps impacted him. “And I think moving forward, I can’t wait to be a part of training camp and use it as an extremely valuable piece to start a season.”
Swayman plans to remain in the Boston area of a majority of the offseason, with his focus this summer revolving around maintaining his conditioning while also fine-tuning his “on-ice development”.
Despite his focus on staying in the present, Swayman is aware of the discourse surrounding him, his production, contract, and all of the other narratives that have turned the promising netminder into one of the more polarizing figures on the roster.
In some respects, it’s an inevitable outcome for any starting netminder donning the spoked-B.
But even with all that noise around him, Swayman isn’t letting it impact him as both he and the team look to right the ship in 2025-26.
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“I am able to block it out,” Swayman said. “And that’s something that I’ve always done is — I really want to make sure that I’m staying in the moment, in the present. I know that I perform my best when I’m just playing for the guys in this room, and indirectly, it’s playing for the people on the outside.
“And that’s the best feeling ever. … . I want to be a top goaltender in this league, and I know that I have the ability to do that. And it’s going to be a really good feeling to make sure that we’re coming to work every day and earning that.”
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