Bruins Acknowledge ‘Really Hard’ Roster Moves Coming Before Opener

The Bruins found some middle ground with Jeremy Swayman on Sunday, officially signing him to an eight-year, $66 million contract that will keep him around through the 2030-31 season.

Boston made a concession to complete the deal, though.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney spoke with reporters after putting the finishing touches on the contract and admitted the extension would cause some tough roster decisions to be made before the league’s deadline Monday.

“We’re happy moving forward,” Sweeney said in his press conference at Warrior Ice Arena, as seen on NESN. “We have some roster stuff to deal with as a result of it — yesterday I had some cap space, today I don’t have as much — so we unfortunately have to make some really hard roster decisions. That’s part of business.”

Swayman’s deal needed to get done if the club hoped to compete moving forward, but it’ll take some creativity to make roughly $2 million — their expected remaining cap space — stretch throughout the remainder of the season. The Bruins have another round of cuts to make, but with their most pressing need taken care of, they can’t be all that difficult.