' ... he'll be playing on opening night'
Former Bruins goaltender Andrew Raycroft said on Monday he hasn’t heard any updates regarding a new contract for restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
The 1998 Calder Memorial Trophy winner reiterated that he has “no level of concern” that a deal will get done on WEEI’s “The Skate Pod.”
“No level of concern. No updates haven’t heard a thing,” Raycroft said on the podcast. “… Everybody’s gone. The hockey world — everybody is gone. Since July 7 when that development camp shut down the last one in the league, everybody is gone.”
Raycroft reminded everyone that the majority of the Bruins players are in Croatia for David Pastrnak’s wedding, including Swayman, and no one is thinking about business right now.
“There’s really no reason for fans to be worried about a contract until September,” Raycroft said. “September 1 is maybe you can start thinking or even talking about it and even then they have two weeks (until the start of training camp).”
The NESN analyst added that the contract will be hashed out quickly once the two sides return from their vacations.
“This is going to take two phone calls at the end of the day,” Raycroft said. “Jeremy can’t really go anywhere. He has to sign. He has to play. He has to make a lot of money and the Bruins have to pay him a lot of money. I think at the end of the day, it will be a couple of phone calls, they’ll get it hashed out, and he’ll be playing on opening night.”
The Bruins and Swayman both opted to not file for arbitration, which means, more than likely, the two sides are not that far apart and just need to dot some Is and cross some Ts to complete the deal. And even if another club submitted an offer sheet to the netminder, Boston would have the opportunity to match it.