The Skate Podcast reacts to the news that the Boston Bruins and goalie Jeremy Swayman finally agreed to an eight-year contract worth $8.25 million per year.
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00:00Welcome into episode three 52 of the skate podcast.
00:10I am Brian D Felice joined by Scott McLaughlin.
00:12Bridget has, I believe broadcasting duties today, of course, with her luck, Scott, it's
00:18the day that all the news breaks regarding Jeremy Swayman.
00:21So let's get right into it.
00:24The Bruins and Swayman agree finally, uh, to an eight year, $66 million contract where
00:32his annual value is 8.25 million Scott.
00:38If you ask my opinion quickly, the team probably paid a little bit more than they hoped.
00:44The player probably got a little bit less than he thought he deserved.
00:48And that's a sign of a good deal where both parties have to compromise.
00:52The fans are happy.
00:54Let's get the show on the road.
00:55Yeah.
00:56And they end up a whole $250,000 a year off of what I said made sense at the end of the
01:03season back in May.
01:05Um, amazing that it took five months to get to this point, but at least they finally got
01:11there and they did it before opening night, two days before, uh, Swayman, it sounds like
01:18will not be ready to start opening night.
01:21Um, but I think the Bruins expect them to be game ready pretty quickly here early in
01:28the season.
01:29Uh, Jonas Corpus Sala will start opening night.
01:31We'll, we'll get into the roster ramifications and whatnot, but yeah, obviously the biggest
01:36story is just that it got done after a whole week of, you know, Cam Neely's comments on
01:42Monday and Swayman's agent, Louis Gross responding that night and, you know, take a few days
01:48to decide what they want to do next.
01:51And you know, I think we said this on our last episode.
01:53It was like, despite all of that, there's reports out there that, that they're not that
01:59far apart.
02:00And it's like, all right, cooler heads have to prevail.
02:03Right.
02:04And like everyone kind of sits down and figures out that, okay, we can actually bridge this
02:09gap and get this done.
02:11And they finally did.
02:12Right.
02:13Like Bruins came all the way up to eight.
02:14That was what Cam Neely said.
02:16There are reports that Swayman, uh, and his agent finally got below asking for nine at
02:23some point.
02:24And so, yeah, you end up somewhere between 8.25, like you said, probably a little more
02:30than the Bruins would have hoped and less than Swayman would have wanted, but that's,
02:35that's the name of the game.
02:36So both sides probably, you know, I still think probably too stubborn along the way,
02:42but not stubborn enough to let this bleed into the regular season and start, you know,
02:48costing Swayman money or hurting the Bruins cap or any of the other stuff, or just hurting
02:54the team, which is what could have happened.
02:55So yeah, the final number that they agreed to really, you see it and your, and your thought
03:03is why does it take so long if this is what it was?
03:07Because it makes a lot of sense.
03:09I know that we talked about comps.
03:12In the past to Swayman situation with previous goaltenders and seven, eight offered by the
03:20Bruins eight offered by the Bruins all would have been more than what Swayman's comps would
03:26have been in the past.
03:27Obviously, you know, or I will sit here and say eight to five is, is that's not, that's,
03:33that's fair too.
03:34Like, you know, you have to, you have to pay for one of the best goalies in the, in the
03:38world for sure.
03:40But even as recent as yesterday morning, Scott, David Pagnotta, if that's how you say his
03:46name, he, he, yeah, he, he was reporting that the, that, that Swayman's camp had come down
03:53into the eights, but the high eights and we all know the Bruins were at eight.
03:58And so even as recent as 20, you know, 30 hours ago, they could have been as far apart
04:04as close to a million.
04:06And, and you know, I, I mentioned online, I said, look, the, the player needs to come
04:13down still.
04:14Like if somebody has to move here, it's the player.
04:16And it's funny because you'll mention the Bruins initial offer of 6.25 and Swayman's
04:23initial ask of nine and a half and the Bruins had moved up almost 2 million from their initial
04:28offer and Swayman's camp moved down like five to 700 K from theirs.
04:33And most people understand where I'm going with that, which is the final number is closer
04:40to the team's latest offer than this, than the players recent ask.
04:44And everybody will go online and say, Oh, that's not how it works.
04:47The Brewers could have offered this.
04:49It's like, guys, look, I'm not interested in being playing the could have should have
04:52would have game.
04:53Like I'm just going off of reported offers that were out there.
04:56And the fact of the matter is I never thought that the Bruins were going to pay Swayman
05:00eight five plus.
05:01I always thought it was going to be probably low eights.
05:04And if that's the case and the player was at high eights and the Bruins were at eight,
05:09something had to give and it was it was the player and it makes all the sense in the world.
05:13You just kind of wonder, I don't know, did it have to take them a day before?
05:18I'm glad it happened, obviously.
05:20But did it have to take them a day before the roster cut down?
05:22Because now, you know, Swayman has to get caught up to speed and I would like to see
05:26him in the net Tuesday against Florida.
05:28I know it's not realistic.
05:29But if I had to pick my guy, I'd rather it be Swayman.
05:32But he doesn't have the reps in training camp to get tossed into the fire just yet.
05:36And that's unfortunate.
05:37Right.
05:38And Swayman, I think I already had one person tweeted me like so he's held out of all camp
05:44and now he's not ready to go and it's like, well, no, he's been working out.
05:47He's been on the ice.
05:48He said he was over at BU.
05:51I was happy to hear him say now considers himself an honorary terrier, even though he's
05:56a Maine Black Bear.
05:59So yeah, like he's been on the ice, he's been working out, he's been practicing, he's been
06:02facing shots.
06:04But that's very different than NHL practice games, NHL shots like that.
06:11You know that they're going to have one practice down in Florida on Monday.
06:16That's just not enough.
06:17Like any any other game after that, you know, maybe he gets two or three practices in by
06:22Thursday, by the home opener, or, you know, it might take a game or two longer than that.
06:26We'll see.
06:27But he'll he'll be ready pretty quickly here.
06:30It's not going to take a long ramp up time.
06:33It's just too quick of a turnaround for Tuesday night.
06:37Right now, as it pertains to the the rest of the season, because I don't know about
06:42you, Scott, and maybe we'll have to discuss it a little bit when Bridget gets back on
06:46tomorrow's episode, which will be more about season previews and stuff.
06:49But now I'm just like, now can we just be done?
06:53We can just be done talking about about the the Jeremy Swimming contract stuff.
06:57I mean, we can still break down all you know how it all played out, but I'm not interested
07:02anymore.
07:03Now that it's done, it's like, OK, thank God.
07:05And what I can say is looking forward beyond the first week of the season, it's it's stayed
07:09in the obvious.
07:11The Bruins ceiling is back on, right?
07:15If they had to play the year, I was trying to be glass half full because the reality
07:19could have been they were without swimming for half the year or more.
07:22And and in those situations, you try to see, OK, how can they do without them?
07:27And I still think their roster outside of the goal is good enough to make the playoffs
07:34and see what happens.
07:35But there's obviously no question right now there.
07:40In my opinion, the Bruins ceiling is undoubtedly a Stanley Cup.
07:45Obviously, I think they're one of probably six or seven teams that very well could be
07:50saying the same thing right now.
07:51And then we'll see how the season plays out.
07:52And there could be some dark horses right now that end up having a great year in their
07:56cup contenders.
07:57But it just feels so much better now that he's back in that.
08:01And we all wanted this all along.
08:03I think any, you know, any negativity towards the topic, at least from my perspective, was
08:09because I just know how important the player is.
08:11And I knew that, you know, the certainly the the later reports of what the Bruins offered
08:16was was fair for him.
08:19And as it turns out, he signs a week later.
08:21So the history books will look back and say it wasn't that long of a sweat out period
08:25once nearly went public.
08:27You just wonder why wasn't that stuff said behind the scenes like, yeah, and I'm sure
08:32it was.
08:34You know, as we know, Cam Neely can be a little bit of a little bit of a hothead and just
08:40says what's on his mind.
08:41And obviously, that was the topic of the press conference this Sunday.
08:45So Jeremy Simon and Don Sweeney both met with the media.
08:50I was over there at Warrior and both were asked about Neely's comments and then Lewis
08:56Gross's response.
08:58And how did that affect negotiations?
09:00And to both of their credits, they kind of just took the high road.
09:04They weren't going to talk about it.
09:05You know, what's in the past is in the past.
09:08Part of the part of negotiations and now we're just focused on the present and the future
09:13and the start of the season.
09:15So that's, you know, how I would have expected them to answer it.
09:20But obviously, we have to ask the questions when, you know, I think.
09:27You do kind of wonder a little bit of Swainman, right, because we heard, you know, how often
09:31he's referenced like arbitration, which he was asked about again on Sunday, too.
09:36You know, he was said he was asked, like, last season, you referenced your arbitration
09:40multiple times and using that as motivation, right?
09:44We learned that in this Amazon series where he talked about even in the playoffs, he's
09:49still using that as a motivation.
09:51So he was asked, you know, are you going to use kind of this whole process all summer?
09:58These negotiations or Neely's comments or whatever as motivation the same way?
10:04And he just said the Stanley Cup is motivation, like he just said, that's his motivation.
10:09So good answer for now.
10:11You know, we'll see if maybe at some point in the season he brings it up out of the blue
10:15like he did with arbitration last year or have to kind of learn that lesson.
10:20He's not maybe he's not going to go down that road, even if he is thinking about it.
10:24But you know, at least at least for Sunday, it was, you know, Kumbaya, everyone's back
10:31on the same page, passes the pass, and they're moving on.
10:35And as it should be, the reality of the situation is now he's he's he's a Boston Bruin until
10:412032.
10:43And Scott, I don't I don't believe I mentioned off the top some of the the details as it
10:47pertains to no movements.
10:51But I believe he has a full no move for the first like 70 percent, and then he has a couple
10:57of no trade lists, I think, as the contract gets older.
11:02I think the no move kicks in year three, if I have it right.
11:06So I think it's years.
11:08So I think the first two years, I think there's no trade protection at all.
11:12So like that kind of if you want to look at it, that kind of covers his RFA years.
11:17And then I think full no move kicks in year three through six.
11:21And it goes down to like a 10 team trade list and then a 10 team no trade.
11:28But yeah, but there is trade protection.
11:29I don't think it's right off the bat.
11:33And then, you know, the way it's structured is like, people might have seen this kind
11:38of the structure of his salary and signing bonuses.
11:42All fans really need to know is the cap hit is eight and a half million all eight years.
11:47That does not change.
11:48That stays the same no matter what.
11:50He's actually getting paid in terms of cash from year to year.
11:56So let's talk about the actual contract, Scott, the the 8.25 AAV you just referenced.
12:03And personally, I have zero doubts that that contract will look amazing, even better and
12:11better and better as as the years go on.
12:15I think earlier in episodes, if I ever referenced, well, he hasn't played a full slate of games.
12:22He was splitting the net with Allmark.
12:24I was not saying that in a from from a perspective of I don't believe he can do it given the
12:30opportunity.
12:32It was we were talking about negotiations and both sides tend to be black and white,
12:36right?
12:37As you learn, like arbitration.
12:38So I was trying to play devil's advocate for the team as you know, as well as the player
12:43and different things, too.
12:45But I have no doubt that he will be a top goalie in the league for years to come.
12:51The only question is injury, which every player has that question mark.
12:55So I don't I don't really like going there because nothing you can do about that.
12:59So barring injuries, Scott, I think the Bruins will have one of the top goalies in the league
13:03continue to for for another almost decade where the Bruins won't have to worry about
13:09goaltending.
13:10And we are already going on two plus decades of that.
13:12So we are spoiled in Boston as it pertains to goaltending.
13:15Yeah.
13:16And I think it's going to be interesting to to watch, you know, how his workload does
13:22increase and what that ramp up looks like.
13:27We talked about this when we had Razor on, you know, a month or a month and a half ago,
13:31whenever that was about how he's probably not going to jump straight from a career high
13:3843 starts to like 60 plus, you know, more likely it's maybe you add 10 to 12 starts
13:46to his workload the first year, get him up to like 53, 55.
13:51That probably feels about right.
13:53Corpus Allo starts, you know, around 30 games, so maybe slightly less.
13:58And then you see how he handles that, like, all right, if he's still fresh at the end
14:02of the year and hopefully can handle every game and what you hope is a long playoff run.
14:07OK, then maybe next year you ramp it up a little bit more.
14:11But that is going to be interesting to watch, because.
14:14I know with some goalies who play like I know there's Winnipeg Jets fans who think that
14:21Connor Hellebuck playing 60 plus games has hurt him in the playoffs, like his playoff
14:25numbers have not been nearly as good as his regular season numbers.
14:30And there's kind of this sentiment that he wears out late in the season and it's like,
14:36why not get a better backup and like start to reduce his workload?
14:39Right. Like the Bruins did that to Gerask.
14:41You know, he had the big money contracts.
14:45Everyone knew he was the guy in the playoffs, but they made sure they always had a number
14:49two that they felt good enough about to handle, you know, 25, 30 starts towards the end of
14:57Raph's career, even more than that.
15:00You know, so Swayman's young.
15:01He's in his prime.
15:02I don't think he's going to be going back to the 50-50 split anytime soon.
15:07But what that number of starts actually looks like is going to be interesting to monitor
15:12this year, next year, going throughout this contract.
15:16Now, is there anything in particular throughout that Amazon series with the Swayman episode
15:21that you learned something about him that you didn't previously know?
15:28Not really.
15:29Kind of, you know, I mean, like, OK, like we learned he had this the list of criticisms
15:36from arbitration, but none of it really surprised me in terms of like fitting with his character
15:43and some of the other things we had heard him say to that point.
15:47So maybe some of the specifics were new, like having it all written out on the list.
15:52And he revealed that, you know, one of their knocks on him was he wasn't trustworthy in
15:58the playoffs.
15:59I don't think we had heard that before, but overall, no, it's like it didn't surprise
16:05me that he was still using that arbitration hearing as as motivation and like referencing
16:11back to it even during the playoffs.
16:15Yeah, I just I found myself watching and I just kept saying to myself, please figure
16:19out a way to get this guy signed.
16:20You know, obviously, look, and throughout this process, you see you saw a lot of a lot
16:28of people saying just give him give him what he wants.
16:32You know, he's worth he's worth this in the open market, blah, blah, blah.
16:36He's one of the best goalies in the world, one of the which he is all those things.
16:40But the difference was it seemed like a lot of individuals just don't understand the
16:45differences between a UFA and an RFA.
16:47So like he he didn't have the luxury of going to the open market and he had to deal with
16:51the Bruins salary cap and which, you know, it's not his job.
16:57But to worry about the Bruins cap, but it does make a difference in what his number
17:02ends up being.
17:04But, yeah, I just found myself saying just guys just figure it out because he is, of
17:08course, he's amazing, but he's such a gamer like you just watch him mic'd up on the ice
17:13against Florida and Toronto and you see all the the techniques he does off the ice to
17:20keep himself sharp.
17:21And it's just I just love the player, hated how the negotiations played out.
17:26But yeah, I watched that series and I was like, can we please not have this guy miss
17:32any regular season time?
17:35Yeah, and it's also understanding the difference between a cap like a hard cap league
17:40and a no cap or a soft cap league, right?
17:43Like you'd even hear, you know, you'd hear people call it the sports radio and you're
17:48like, you know, why does anyone care what the Jacobs spend?
17:51Like they should just stop being cheap.
17:52And it's like it's not about the Jacobs being cheap or not.
17:56It's about fitting it into into the salary cap and what the Bruins feel they can afford
18:02to spend, how much how much of the cap they feel they can afford to allocate to a goalie
18:08or to any one player or now in this case to, you know, really three highly paid players
18:15that are up over a million a year that I think we would all agree are kind of the the
18:20tenets of this next era of Bruins hockey.
18:23And that's David Posnack, Charlie McAvoy and now Jeremy Swain, you know, and Elias
18:30Lindholm as well, like to a slightly lesser extent.
18:33But as a new guy coming in, making over seven million.
18:37So. Yeah, like, you know.
18:42You yes, you want good players, yes, you have to spend to have good players, but there's
18:48also that flip side where you risk becoming the Toronto Maple Leafs, where you have too
18:53much money tied up at the top of your roster and every year you're you're lacking depth,
18:59it seems like. So that's the balance.
19:03It's not like in baseball or football.
19:07Like, yeah, I'm I'm totally with the player friendly portion of fans.
19:12He says, yeah, like the owner should just spend like spend to keep good players.
19:18So, you know, baseball has no cap.
19:21There's like a luxury tax or whatever.
19:24Football has fake salary cap that you can always find ways to move money around if you
19:29need to. NBA every I don't know what like top 25 player gets a max contract.
19:36So that's its own thing.
19:39Hockey is kind of the one league that has a real hard salary cap that, you know, there's
19:45a couple ways you can get around it, like long term IR or, you know, an over 35 contract
19:52that's bonus heavy.
19:53But like for the most part, no, like the salary caps, 88 million, you have 88 million and
19:59that's kind of it. So you have to figure out how to make the pieces fit.
20:03And that was like, I don't think at any point this was about how much money Jeremy and Charlie
20:10Jacobs were willing to give Jeremy Swayman.
20:14I think it was always about what the front office thought, what they could afford to
20:20pay him. Right, and last night, up until last night and Puckpedia, which took the place
20:28of cap friendly, actually responded to me last night online because I mentioned that
20:34they that they listed the Bruins as having cap space availability of like seven point
20:40eight million or something like that.
20:42Obviously, we all knew the Bruins had already offered Swayman eight and this was only going
20:45to go up from there or around eight.
20:48But there's only so many cap calculators online you can really see and Puckpedia at this
20:54stage is probably the most the number one in the game.
20:58And they were saying the Bruins had seven, eight, and they actually responded to me and
21:03mentioned that that number included having three goalies on the roster being Corporate
21:08Solo, Bussey and Patera.
21:11He said they could wave and send down Bussey and Patera and gain one point five five
21:16million in cap space.
21:18So. Obviously, like that, that would have freed up Boston to sign Swayman for even more,
21:23but it just goes to show like, you know, give give him give him ten, give him a like
21:27that's not you don't just give a guy when you're you don't give an RFA, you can't you
21:33can't afford it. And that's why something had to give like the Bruins could only go up
21:38so high is the point here.
21:40And both sides, they came to an agreement and and it's all great.
21:46And by the way, this agreement, I don't view it as as I said at the top, the team went
21:51higher than they wanted. The player took less than he wanted.
21:54Good compromise. That being said, I don't I'm not looking at Swayman signing for eight to
21:58five saying that he took a hometown discount.
22:00Like, I think he did really well in this.
22:02I think good in the player.
22:03He got a very he got 66 million reasons now, as Kim Neely would say, to take care of
22:10himself and future generations.
22:12So. Yeah, and, you know, as as I laid out on a previous episode, like he did push what's
22:20possible for a restricted free agent.
22:22This is now the second largest contract behind only Andre Veselovsky that a restricted
22:28free agent has ever signed.
22:32Restricted free agent goalie, I should specify.
22:36He's now tied with Ilya Sorokin as the fifth highest paid goalie in the league.
22:41And if you take out Carey Price, who's retired for all intents and purposes, tied for
22:46fourth highest, also tied with Sorokin for the biggest contract a goalie has ever gotten
22:53in terms of total money.
22:56So, you know, to do all that as an RFA, like that's significant, right?
23:00It's he matched.
23:02Sorokin was a year out from unrestricted free agency and arguably has.
23:09You know, a more solidified resume at the time that he signed, he certainly had more
23:14experience. You know, I think I think both of those goalies are both saying Sorokin are
23:21really good. So if you're forcing me to pick one, I mean, I guess Swayman because of his
23:26age, because he's a few years younger, but like that's impressive.
23:31He topped what you see Soros got as a pending unrestricted free agent.
23:37He took seven point seven four million a year.
23:39So Swayman has now made it so that, you know, in theory, a restricted free agent can get
23:45paid what just a year ago or even a few months ago, unrestricted free agents were getting
23:52paid. Now, I think Igor Sorokin is going to really kind of blow the goalie market out of the
23:59water. I think he's going to push it even higher.
24:01He'll probably pass Carey Price as the highest paid goalie ever whenever his deal gets
24:07done. But Swayman, you know, he did help do his part to up the goalie market because it had
24:15kind of stagnated in recent years where no one was really going above eight to five or
24:20eight five for pretty much anyone.
24:24So based off what you've seen in preseason so far with Jonas Corporisolo, what would you feel
24:30comfortable with him playing this year for a game total as a backup to Swayman?
24:38I think like twenty eight to thirty makes makes sense.
24:44You know, like obviously it's not going to be an even split, so at that point, I think really
24:50whatever number it ends up at is fine.
24:52Like I think. I think Corporisolo was perfectly solid in a platoon or a backup situation, if
25:00he can play the way he played for most of this preseason now, he did end the preseason with
25:05kind of a dud Thursday night in Quebec City.
25:08Not that all those goals were his fault.
25:11Team really stunk ahead of him.
25:14But yeah, I think you're looking at that range, like twenty five to thirty high twenties,
25:19whatever, somewhere around there.
25:21You know, the big problem with him in Ottawa was not only was it a bad situation, not only
25:26did he was his play poor, but I also think having to go out there every night and trying to
25:33be an everyday goalie, something he had never been before, I don't think that helped him at
25:37all. Yeah, no, for sure, I think I think as a as a true backup, I don't think anybody should
25:44have any issues with with Corporisolo.
25:46I think obviously what the reality was up until this morning definitely was enough to
25:53have people a little bit nervous, but in the role that he will now be playing in and also
25:59just Bussie, I don't think Bussie really showed a ton throughout preseason this show.
26:06He could be an NHL backup at this point either.
26:08So that might be unfair, might be too small of a sample size, but can only go off of of
26:13what we've seen. So, Scott, I don't know if you have any lingering takes from these
26:18contracts negotiations before we head into just one other thing I wanted to ask about,
26:23which would be final roster predictions prior to Monday.
26:28So I think this will this will tie together a bit, but I was just going to note, you know,
26:34so we're recording just after 2 p.m.
26:37Sunday and the Bruins did already place Brandon Bussie and Yuri Patera on waivers.
26:45I thought maybe they might keep one of them around if they didn't, you know, if they didn't
26:49think Swayman would be ready to even back up for opening night.
26:52But that kind of indicates to me that they feel like he's at least ready to back up and
26:57probably start a game, you know, one of the first three to four games.
27:02It's not like this is going to be, you know, four or five straight starts for Corpus Allo
27:07where you have to wonder, you know, would Bussie or Patera get a start?
27:12Like, no, they're just waving them, obviously.
27:15I think Bussie in particular, they're going to hope that he clears and they have him in
27:19Providence again.
27:20He didn't finish the preseason strong his last two games, including Saturday night down
27:26in Washington.
27:28But yeah, so we'll see what happens there.
27:33Puckpedia now with so they also waved Patrick Brown, Jeffrey VL and Billy Sweezy.
27:42So they're down to, I believe, 21 players.
27:46Puckpedia has the mat, but that includes.
27:49So their camp roster is still higher than that, so they still have more cups to make
27:54more cuts to make, rather.
27:58But guys like NHL deals, hopefully, hopefully they have more cups to make, Scott.
28:03Yes, many, many more eight, eight, eight in a row.
28:06The entire swimming contract.
28:08Yeah.
28:09So Puckpedia has them at 21 players, one point nine million dollars in camp space.
28:18You know, so some of that could be used to sign Tyler Johnson or keep around, you know,
28:23a Cole Kepke or Riley Tufte or maybe both, because those guys are still here as of now.
28:32Yeah, exactly, I noticed Kepke wasn't one of the forwards at the Bruins place on waivers.
28:37Obviously, I think you mentioned last episode, Scott, it's not very common for players to
28:42get claimed off waivers the the 24 hours leading up to the the roster cutdowns because
28:49people are trying to get their cap situation in order.
28:52So I feel like the Bruins are putting guys on waivers, no and no clear and go to Providence
28:55or whatever. But it seems like they want to even take that chance maybe with with Kepke,
29:00to your point. Tyler Johnson is another one.
29:03Yeah, just under two million dollars in cap space.
29:05So seems like I don't know what he would really get.
29:09Could you get Johnson for closer to a million than two?
29:13I don't really know what his value is at this point.
29:16But in any event, what would you what would you say this means for some final roster
29:22predictions, personnel wise, Scott?
29:26Yeah, so I should also note, Ian Mitchell remains, I believe there's three players left
29:32that I would have thought were in consideration to be waived that were not waived on Sunday.
29:38And that's Kepke, Tufte and Ian Mitchell, which I think means those guys are basically
29:45on the roster through the 5 p.m. deadline, because I think someone has to clear waivers
29:50before that deadline. So you're not putting them on waivers like you can't put them on
29:56waivers Monday afternoon and then they clear by 5 p.m.
30:00So I guess what that tells me is maybe like Patras starting on injured reserve,
30:06which, you know, could be as short as like a seven day thing. So
30:14I think still a couple moves to make, but I feel like the Bruins are probably pretty close
30:20to set here and might have some guys around that, you know, maybe don't make it through
30:24the first week, but they're for now just as extra bodies have in practice have on the
30:31trip down to Florida. And yeah. And now, you know, maybe the biggest question left is what
30:37what happens with Tyler Johnson? Do they do they sign him? Do they let him go? Do they sign him
30:44by opening night? Or is it a little bit like a Heinen situation where he hangs around a little
30:49bit after that? Yeah, that's that's kind of where my mind goes. How do you feel the team
30:57feels right now about the fact that Fabian Lysel and Georgie Murkuloff, to a lesser extent,
31:04didn't have the camps to make the Bruins make tough calls on them? You know, they both got kind
31:12of a garbage time preseason game at the end there. I know Monty set up the game like we still have
31:20guys trying to make the team. I don't think they were even in position heading into the Washington
31:25game to make the team. But Georgie Murkuloff, to me, Scott doesn't. And I really don't mean to to
31:34you know, cut a player down at the knees and say what they can or can't do in their profession.
31:41Georgie Murkuloff could end up becoming an NHL one day, whether it's Boston or somewhere else.
31:46I just don't really at this moment in time see it because his his size and lack of NHL speed
31:58escapability to make the plays he made, he makes the minors at the NHL level. He hasn't shown he
32:04can do it. He's a finisher down the minors. He hasn't finished in the NHL in many preseason games
32:09or the few regular season games he got. And then, yeah, his size just he just he just seems to be on
32:15the ice too much. And then Lysell, just outside of that, that that middle week of camp, didn't
32:21make much of an impression either. So if you're the Bruins, how are you viewing? Let's start with
32:26Lysell because he was a first round pick for them, not last year, three years ago. And at this point,
32:32he's 21 years old, turning 22 during the season at some point. And you got players that are 18, 19,
32:3720 and early 21 that are probably in the NHL at this point. It's not common, but it happens. So
32:46how does the team feel after training camp, knowing that these guys didn't really make much
32:49of a push again? I think you you feel like they better go down to Providence with the right
32:57attitude and try to make try to force your hand from there. They should both be right on the
33:06doorstep. And I think despite some quiet preseason games, I still think they are.
33:13I think you saw flashes of it in the preseason, but certainly not on any sort of consistent enough
33:19basis. You know, Lysell especially strung together like a week of good games and practices,
33:25but that's not enough when you're talking about two and a half or three weeks of training camp.
33:32You know, Murkulov was a little more hit or miss, but I thought had good stretches within the games
33:37that he did play. But yeah, I guess what's most disappointing is that, you know, they did kind of
33:44go so quietly at the end where these last two preseason games that the Bruins overall just
33:53laid two stinkers. And it's like, you know, like I heard veterans getting asked, like,
33:59do you think you were just kind of looking ahead to the regular season? And it's like,
34:04veterans might do that and they can get away with it because they're going to be on the team.
34:08But like, if you're a kid getting thrown, even if you, whether you think you have a real shot or not,
34:14whether you think that them sending you down last week was already kind of a sign that you're not
34:19going to be there, like you have to treat that as if you still have a chance. And, you know,
34:25Fabian Lysell said that when we talked to him on, what was that, when Wednesday or Thursday before
34:33just when he got called back up, like he said, you know, I have to make it a hard decision for
34:39them. But then the way he played, it's like you almost wonder if he even really believed that,
34:45you know, like, did he believe the words coming out of his own mouth or had he already kind of
34:49accepted defeat? Because I would say like, that's if any part of you had already done that, that's
34:55just totally wrong approach. Like, you know, maybe Fabian Lysell had no chance of making it no matter
35:02what. But if he went out and had the two final preseason games played like he did in that Tuesday
35:10game, you know, a week ago, like at least he would have given them something to think about.
35:17Instead, it's like he probably only confirmed their suspicions or it's like, yeah, all right.
35:22He isn't giving us that effort consistently. He needs more time in Providence. Yeah. And I should,
35:29I should mention while we're recording here at three o'clock on Sunday, Ty Anderson tweeted out
35:3610 minutes ago, Scott, the updated camp roster, and maybe you have or haven't seen it yet. It's
35:42probably in your email. Um, but Georgie Murkuloff's name is crossed out, but Fabian Lysell's name is
35:48still not crossed out. So I'm not sure if that's just like, they're waiting until last minute
35:54tomorrow. I just, I just should mention technically as this recording, I think he's
35:59technically still on camp and not sent down. We're just speculating on what we think is going to
36:03happen. Yeah. So because those guys don't require waivers there that the guys who require waivers,
36:11we know because the waiver list comes out every day at 2 PM. So whether the Bruins officially
36:16announced anything or not, we know who's on waivers. Um, usually they're a little delayed
36:22in terms of like officially announcing their roster moves. So I would imagine we're going to
36:27get a press release and you know, sometimes Sunday afternoon, or they might just wait till Monday,
36:32but either way there, as we're recording at 3 PM, they are on a plane down to Florida. So, um,
36:40my guess is Fabian Lysell's probably not on the flight, but maybe it's, you know, maybe they're,
36:46maybe they're going to keep them around for a Monday practice. Like, I don't know.
36:49Yeah. Cause I only asked because I feel like, and again, I'm not sure when that got emailed
36:56to Ty and Scott, I know you're on the, I don't, it's not, it's not an email. I think Ty just has
37:01the running list that he's crossing off. Oh, that's not an official list then. No, no, no.
37:06Oh, okay. I thought that may have been something that the team emails to the media. No.
37:10Okay. Then I, then I, then I rescind it. Cause I was going to say, I'm wondering why
37:14Merculof at this time would have been crossed out and not the two of them together, but okay. So
37:19maybe it was an unofficial list. I take that back. Um, okay. So we can probably maybe reserve
37:26the most of the chatter for tomorrow, Scott, we're going to have individual predictions and season
37:32predictions for the teams tomorrow with Bridget. We had to get this out today because of obviously
37:36the breaking news. Didn't want to leave people hanging on the swimming stuff. And honestly,
37:40I think tomorrow is better to, I don't want to focus on the swimming stuff anymore after today.
37:47Now it'll be in the rear view mirror. And of course he will affect some predictions we will
37:51have going forward. But as far as the contract stuff, that's going to be buried right here.
37:55And now, um, today, but barring any final thoughts from Scott on the situation.
38:00No, I think I'm good. But yeah, I mean, it obviously definitely ties into season predictions
38:06because what my prediction for this team would be with swimming versus still having this lingering
38:13uncertainty, like it definitely changes it a lot. You know, I, I said it before, so like,
38:18I'm not going to spoil anything, but just in generalities, I think they're a cup contender
38:23with swimming, but had this lingered, had there been uncertainty of like, is he going to play this
38:29year? I think you're looking at a fringe playoff team. Like I, because I think having a great goalie
38:37versus having replacement level goalies, like, or possibly even worse, just makes such a huge
38:44difference. Like, again, just ask the New Jersey devils last year. Like that was not a bad team,
38:50but they had some of the worst goaltending in the league and it totally sunk them.
38:54They missed the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. Last episode you had to,
38:59you had to jump for the last 15, 20 minutes, but I was talking to Bridget
39:03and we, uh, I put out a, uh, a survey and I went back the last 10 years, uh, of Stanley cup
39:12champions and half of them, they're starting goaltender. Didn't even receive Vesna votes.
39:20The other, they won the cup. So I was just trying to pose the question to Bruins nation. Like if
39:25swimming doesn't play for the Bruins this year, worst case scenario, right? Which I don't think,
39:31I don't, I never thought that was going to be the case. I did think he could have gone to December,
39:35but I didn't think he was going to hold out the whole year. But basically the sentiment was
39:41in the last decade, half the teams to win the cup didn't have a top goal in the league
39:45or a Vesna goalie that year. So are the, would the Bruins still be contenders without swimming?
39:52Could they be contenders? Is the rest of the roster good enough? And I forget the exact
39:57results, Scott, but it was, it was something like, uh, high fifties, uh, of voters said that
40:05they would still contend and low forties said that they, they, they would no longer be contenders,
40:10not necessarily not a playoff team, but it wouldn't be contenders. Um, obviously you,
40:14you would, you would fall in the 43% or so based on your comments. The good news is we don't even
40:22have to worry about that anymore. And that's amazing. So, uh, here we go now, now it's like,
40:31you know, all off season, my, my, my biggest concern was like, you know, who are they going
40:36to get the trade deadline for the, for the second line. Right. And then that all of a sudden didn't
40:41seem so important when we were talking about his swimming, not going to be there. And now
40:44that he's back, it's like, okay, they have a very manageable, um, need that they can fill
40:50at the deadline in about five months, whatever it is. So, um, once they do that, I, I anticipate
40:56this Bruins team having a roster that's, you know, just as, just as competitive as any come springtime.
41:03Yeah, they should, they're certainly built. Uh, you know, I think builds better for the playoffs.
41:09I think that was a big part of their off season. Um, you know, I'm sure one of the things we'll
41:14get into on the preview is just how worried we are about the offense, like at the risk of
41:21overreacting to preseason action, like they did have trouble scoring this preseason. Um, including,
41:28you know, when they had regulars out there, but, and, and that's gonna, that's going to be a
41:33question for a while because we know that's kind of the, the sacrifice they made, right? Like they
41:38are a top six when you're short. So, um, you know, we'll, but we'll get into all that more.
41:45I think, I think we're recording like later Monday, so we'll probably be dropping that
41:49either Monday night, Tuesday morning, but that'll, that'll be there for people, uh, ahead of
41:55Tuesday season open. It'll be a game day. Listen, I would just, I would just call it a game day
42:00lesson by the time we get done with it. Um, so you can wake up Tuesday morning. Yeah. It'll be
42:06timely beyond, beyond the first game though. Like, you know, it's going to be, it's going to
42:10be more big picture thoughts. We're not just, we're not just previewing a one game here.
42:15No, of course not. No, honestly, it's probably less, uh, about the first game than anything.
42:21I don't, I don't, unless the Bruins lose eight and nothing, then I take it all back. They stink.
42:25Yeah. Well, you know what though? I will say last time the Bruins opened the season on the road,
42:32they got blown out. They went to the Stanley cup finals. And for those who don't know what I'm
42:35talking about, I believe it was, well, I know it was the 18, 19 season, but they lost the capitals.
42:40I want to say six, nothing in what actually it was Washington's banner banner raising night.
42:45So life's a simulation, Scott, we're just drawing parallels. So just book the Bruins
42:50of the cup finals this year, uh, right now based on that logic. So definitely not flawed at all.
42:56Okay. So thank you all for listening. Scott, do you have any more comments?
43:00Nope. All good.
43:01All right. Thanks all for listening. Uh, please breathe the biggest sigh of relief,
43:06uh, that you've all been waiting to let go of and hockey season starts tomorrow. And we can't
43:12wait to cover it all year for you guys. So have a great rest of your Sunday and we'll talk to you
43:17Tuesday morning. Hey guys, thanks for watching escape podcast. If you want to see more of our
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