Swayman a homegrown rarity for Bruins
Whenever or however this playoff season ends for the Bruins, it sure looks like Jeremy Swayman, the 111th pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, has taken full ownership of his 24 square feet of territory as the franchise’s No. 1 goaltender.
OK, fine, go ahead and say it . . . duh!
But hold on, because what may seem so painfully obvious at this hour, with Swayman’s name already being bandied about as a Conn Smythe candidate, was still a matter of some debate as the playoffs approached. Remember those days of yore, when everyone was asking coach Jim Montgomery how he’d divvy up the job between Swayman and Linus Ullmark?
For the record, that was all of (checks notes) three weeks ago.
Again, for those with memories shorter than Tiny Thompson’s skate laces, Ullmark was last season’s Vezina Trophy winner. He won 40 games. He, too, has shown himself to be a master craftsman and may yet be a factor in the franchise’s fortunes this spring. The Stanley Cup playoffs can be as unpredictable as the bounces of that 6-ounce chunk of rubber that underpins the entire maddening, funhouse mirror of an industry.
At this hour, though, midway through the series against the Panthers, it appears Sway is the way for the Bruins. That was underscored after Game 1 in Florida when Montgomery, summing up his decision to run Swayman out there for a sixth consecutive start, said, “When a guy’s playing that well, it’s like, don’t outsmart yourself.”
Swayman is 25 years old. It’s hardly unheard of for a goalie so young to seize the No. 1 job, though slightly rarer to be the constant go-to guy in the playoffs.
We watched Ken Dryden, then only 23, do it with the Canadiens in the spring of 1971 after playing in only six regular-season games. Andrei Vasilevskiy, now a two-Cup winner with Tampa Bay, was 22 when he became the workhorse for the Lightning. Jake Oettinger,
the first goalie taken in same draft as Swayman, when the Bruins made Swayman the 12th goalie selected, turned 23 in the season he became the Stars’ No. 1 stopper.
What makes Swayman particularly rare in Bruins annals, in fact makes him unique, is that they drafted him, developed him, and now appear to have cultivated him as potentially the franchise’s Martin Brodeur, Marc-Andre Fleury, Patrick Roy ,or Henrik Lundqvist.
Now there’s aiming high, right? And why not? Go grande or go home. Brodeur, Roy, and Lundqvist already have their images hanging in the Hockey
Hall of Fame. A plaque is on order for Fleury, who recently signed on for a 2024-25 farewell tour with the Wild.
All four made their names and became stalwarts with the clubs that drafted them. They were all wunderkinds (average age: 21) when they became full-fledged franchise stoppers, In fact, by age 25 all but Lundqvist had won the Cup and collectively had played in 164 playoff games. Going into Friday night’s Game 3 vs. the Panthers at the Garden, Swayman had made 16 career playoff appearances.
So, sure, it’s far too early to place Swayman among that group of illustrious goaltenders. He only this season posted a career-high 25 wins (now 87 total, including playoffs) and he has yet to be on a team to succeed beyond a first-round series.
But as of today, in this moment, Swayman stands as the club’s most successful goalie to be drafted, cultivated, and kept on the roster in the 60-plus-year history of the draft. The only true comparable is Eddie Johnston, who was signed by the Bruins in the pre-draft era and made his NHL debut in 1962-63, the season he turned 27. E.J. was their property from the start, spent 11 seasons on the Spoked-B roster, and twice has his name on the Cup as a Bruin (1970, ’72).
Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers made his name with the Bruins, too, coming aboard and partnering with Johnston in 1965-66. Cheevers, though, originally was a Maple Leaf, ultimately making his way to the Hub via an intraleague draft. He became a star with the renowned Big Bad Bruins, backing those Cup wins in 1970 and ’72 with Johnston his partner.
Had the Leafs not lost Cheevers to the Bruins, perhaps they wouldn’t be still in the thick of a Cup drought that dates to their 1967 title. But we can play that bit of mind torture here, too, because it was the Bruins who drafted Dryden (No. 14) 60 years ago this June and quickly wheeled him that same summer of 1964 to the Habs.
In all the decades since Johnston’s arrival, the Bruins have drafted scores of goalies and only a handful other than Swayman debuted in Black and Gold. A few initially looked as though they might enjoy long careers in the Hub of Hockey. Not a single one lasted. To wit:
Marco Baron (1979, No. 99) — Played 65 games, including one in the playoffs, prior to being dealt to the Kings following the 1982-83 season.
Mike Moffat (1980, No. 165) — Played 30 games, including 11 in the playoffs. Retired at age 25.
Bill Ranford (1985, No. 52) — Played 49 games, including four in the playoffs, before being dealt to the Oilers (with Geoff Courtnall) March 8, 1988. Returned later in career and played another 81 games.
John Grahame (1994, No. 229) — Played 76 games before being dealt to the Hurricanes Jan. 13, 2003.
Andrew Raycroft (1998, No. 135) — Played 115 games, seven in the playoffs, and was the NHL’s Rookie of the Year (Calder Trophy), before being traded to the Maple Leafs on June 24, 2006, for
Tuukka Rask. Played six more NHL seasons and appeared in one more postseason game.
A couple of free agent signees, including Robbie Tallas and Blaine Lacher, enjoyed some initial success but ultimately had brief playing careers. Their four best stoppers over the last 40 years — Pete Peeters, Tim Thomas, Rask, and Ullmark — were drafted by other NHL clubs. Peeters and Rask were acquired by trade. Thomas, unable to land NHL work with Quebec/Colorado or Edmonton, signed with the Bruins as a free agent and was 31 before he became a regular in the Boston net. Ullmark was a July 2021 UFA hire.
In context, what we are witnessing with Swayman is something we’ve never seen in the Boston net: a kid they drafted, helped develop in college (Maine), develop further in the minor pros (Providence, 14 games total), and now have as their franchise stopper, potentially for a generation. That No. 1 on his back represents more than just a roster number.
NOT GETTING IT DONE Leafs in need of more changes
Entering the weekend, status quo prevailed in Toronto in the wake of Thursday’s inevitable turfing of Sheldon Keefe as coach.
Brendan Shanahan, a decade on the job, remained in charge of the Blue and White executive suite, albeit with Keith Pelley now the ultimate boss after being named Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s CEO in January.
“Pelley’s the suit,” said one former team executive, “but a good suit.” For now, he’s kept Shanahan on as president and Brad Treliving as general manager.
Meanwhile, the topheavy roster, loaded with a gaggle of some of the league’s highest-paid forwards, remained the same as the one that was rubbed out in Round 1, Game 7, last Saturday by the Bruins.
More change is surely coming in Leafland. Isn’t it?
With roughly 150 days to go before opening night, 2024-25, Treliving, entering his second season calling the shots, has to figure a way out of the franchise’s recurring nightmare of early playoff elimination. The Leafs have made it to Round 2 only once in the last 20 years. Their last appearance in the Cup semis was 2002, a 4-2 loss to the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals. Ugly.
“It’s attainable,” their top defenseman, Morgan Rielly, said as the Leafs cleaned out lockers some 48 hours after being dismissed yet again by Boston. “But there’s work and improvement that has to take place.”
“It feels,” added Rielly, “both attainable and a ways away.”
Team captain John Tavares, whose bold rush to the net set up Matthew Knies’s overtime winner in Game 6, is on the books for only one more season at $11 million. Slick winger Mitch Marner just turned 27 and has one year left at $10.9 million.
Marner is in the same spot Matthew Tkachuk was in with the Flames after the 2021-22 season, standing one year from reaching unrestricted free agency. The difference: Tkachuk wanted out, and specifically wanted to be wheeled to the Panthers. Treliving, the Flames’ GM at the time, cut the best deal he could, which today has the Flames saddled with the highly paid and grossly underperforming Jonathan Huberdeau.
Marner said again, amid locker cleanout day, that he’d like to extend his deal in Toronto. No surprise. No one ever wants to leave Leafland, where the work season rarely extends beyond 89 games. Also, like all of Toronto’s top earners, including Tavares, Marner can’t be traded without his permission.
Treliving’s best, most practical play might be impossible to execute. To wit: Wheel Tavares to a primo Cup contender, while retaining, say, half of the cap hit, then dish Marner for a true, minute-munching top-four defenseman who can finally solidify the perpetually leaky back end.
None of that is possible if Tavares and Marner don’t sign off. If they don’t, they are both goners next summer and then Treliving can switch to reset. Regrettably, from his standpoint, he won’t have bolstered the roster with whatever assets he could have received for Marner.
ETC. Bowness always kept it classy
The final number for Rick Bowness: 2,726. That’s Bones’s career total for games coached in the NHL, be it as an assistant or as boss.
Bowness, 69, most recently the No. 1 in Winnipeg (two seasons, 98 wins), called it a career last Monday. The onetime centerman moves to the rocking chair with that record for games coached, accompanied by his legacy as one of the game’s kindest, most sincere individuals. Everybody loves Bones.
“Such a classy human. Great role model for many coaches, especially me,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who worked with Bowness in Dallas, where the latter took over the Stars’ bench when Montgomery was dismissed.
Montgomery, hired out of the college ranks (Denver) for the job in Dallas, his first behind an NHL bench, credited Bowness for guiding him on how to handle players, practices, and travel.
“Tremendously impacted me and my growth in the league,” noted Montgomery, offering his thoughts immediately after learning that Bowness announced his retirement. “The most important thing is what a great human and family man he is.”
Montgomery said he especially appreciated that Judy Bowness, the coach’s wife, texted the Montgomerys over the weekend, pre- and post-Game 7 against the Maple Leafs.
“That speaks volumes, you know, about the type of people they are,” said Montgomery, “and how they care about the people in their lives.”
Bowness, then 37, spent 95 of those 2,726 games as bench boss in Boston in 1991-92, the Bruins dismissed, 4-0, by the Penguins in the Cup semis. He was promptly let go by GM Harry Sinden, who favored the tighter-gripped approach of Brian Sutter over the more understanding, modern ways of the good-humored Bowness.
“They had Terry [O’Reilly], a longtime Bruin favorite and tough guy,” Bowness told your faithful puck chronicler a few years ago, when he established the record for games coached. “Then they had Mike [Milbury]. And then they bring an unknown like me in, and I was determined from the outset, well, I am going to coach my way, not like Mike and Terry. Yeah, they were great coaches, very successful, but l knew I wanted to coach my way and be me. So, it probably cost me my job there. But that’s OK. Because it also kept me alive.”
The Bruins didn’t reach the Cup semis again for nearly two decades, until Claude Julien guided them to the title in 2011.
Loose pucks
Ex-Bruins coach Don Cherry ,who turned 90 in February, made clear via a posting on X Thursday, the day Sheldon Keefe was canned as coach, how the outcome could have been different for the Leafs this spring. “Ask yourself this,” Grapes said to fans, “Switch goalies. Who wins the series? Show me a good coach and I’ll show you a good goalie.” Ilya Samsonov, who, like Jeremy Swayman, settled his contract via salary arbitration last summer, did not provide playoff-worthy goaltending. Ex-Boston College goalie Joseph Woll was brilliant in his two starts but had to sit out Game 7 because of injury. In his end-of-season presser, Leafs GM Brad Treliving made clear it was on his checklist to explore ways for Woll, 25, to avoid the injury list. Woll has a year remaining on his entry-level deal, which pays him less than $800,000. Probably a good idea for Treliving also to extend that deal this summer . . . Coaching legend Scotty Bowman, who took over the Montreal bench just weeks after Ken Dryden backed the Habs to the Cup in the spring of 1971, holds the all-time mark for games as an NHL bench boss (2,141). Second place, Paul Maurice, today the coach of the Florida Panthers. He’ll coach No. 1,851 Tuesday night in Sunrise when the Bruins are there for Game 5 of the series. Now 57, he’s on target to edge by Bowman in three-plus years . . . Bruins short-timer Travis Green (2003-06) landed the gig as the Senators’ new coach. Curious fit. He had four-plus unspectacular seasons in that role with the Canucks, and failed this spring to nudge the Devils over the line after he took over for Lindy Ruff, the Devils going an uninspired 8-12-1 under his watch. Steve Staios, the exBruins defenseman who now is the Senators’ GM, noted his desire for a firmer, more defined, disciplined approach. Maybe it works. The Senators are young and talented but have a penchant for lapsing into freewheeling out there. Brady Tkachuk’s frequent barks haven’t called them to order. Perhaps Green has a bark they’ll heed . . . When hockey is being played in the Hub on Mother’s Day, Bruins fans of a certain age can’t help but dial the memory machine back to the May, 10, 1970, holiday when Bobby Orr banged home the short return pass from Derek Sanderson for the OT winner over the Blues, bringing home the franchise’s first Cup title since 1941. The fans who remember that day — and the scorching heat inside the old barn on Causeway Street — are now minimum age 60 (not a typo, no matter how hard some of us might wish it were).