Bruins’ Cam Neely Gives Honest Insight On Jeremy Swayman Talks

BOSTON -- Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has always operated under the notion of not divulging contract negotiations between the club and its players. Cam Neely obviously does not share the same belief.

Neely was perfectly blunt when asked where the contract negotiations stand with camp holdout Jeremy Swayman at the Bruins media day press conference at TD Garden on Monday.

"I don't want to get into the weeds with what his ask is," Neely said. "But I know I have 64 million reasons why I'd be playing right now."

The Bruins president did not offer any more details, including the length of the deal. But an educated guess would put the term at $8 million AVV for eight years. Sweeney said he was not surprised by the contract Swayman asked for, but Neely interjected to say, "I was surprised."

"Being a former player, I'm not a big fan of low ball, high ball. Figure it out somewhere in the middle," Neely said. " ... I think Don's past has shown he can get the deals done. This one is just a little bit trickier, that's all.

"I strongly believe Jeremy wants to play here. I've asked him flat out, 'Do you want to play here?' He does. I do believe they'll get a deal done. Unfortunately, it's not done today."

Neely added that he believes Swayman is trying to reset the goalie market for players behind him looking for new contracts.

"I do, yeah, I do," Neely said. "Just what his ask is and what we believe his conflict is are two different things."

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery confirmed that, given the way camp has gone thus far, Joonas Korpisalo will be Boston's opening-night goaltender on Oct. 8.