Swayman 'in a great spot' entering Bruins training camp

BOSTON -- One year ago, so much was in question in Jeremy Swayman’s world. He was facing down the prospect of missing some, if not all, of training camp, with his contract situation unsettled and his position with the Boston Bruins uncertain.

It would ultimately take until just two days before the season opener for Swayman and the team to agree on a new deal, one worth $66 million over eight years, a process that was rife with turmoil that spilled out into the public.

So, it made sense that a question about the upcoming training camp wasn’t even finished before Swayman jumped in, chuckling: “So excited,” he said.

“It’s an extremely important time of the year,” he said at the team's practice facility on Thursday. “If I didn’t have that experience, I probably wouldn’t understand the importance of it. So yeah, this definitely allowed me to prepare a little bit differently come training camp time -- and looking forward to it.

“And that’s something I’ve really rallied behind is being in this locker room, just [exuding] love to everyone because I missed them at this time of year last year.”

Training camp -- and, beyond that, the 2025-26 season -- marks a chance for a reset for Swayman, a chance for him to rebound into the goalie who took the Stanley Cup Playoffs by storm in 2024, leading the Bruins to go all in on the young goalie and trade away Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Linus Ullmark.

“Really excited,” Swayman said. “Been waiting a long time for this.”

This, it seems, is a new start, a refreshed take on being the No. 1 goalie that the Bruins can rely on for now and for the future. It’s a process which kicked off this summer with a statement-making performance at the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championships, in which Swayman went 7-0 with a 1.69 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage, including a shutout in the gold medal game against Switzerland, crediting the playoff-like experience for allowing him to get back to his game and his roots.

Asked what he changed this summer, Swayman said, “Everything.”

Compared to a year ago, he said, “I’m a completely different human being. And that’s a testament to the experience that I gained throughout my career to this point. And I’m so grateful for that, the ups and downs of it all.

“Sitting here, Jeremy Swayman is in a great spot and I’m really excited about that. To have that approach of creating the culture, creating my self-culture to be elite and hopefully it’ll bleed into this room and have guys follow that way. And so that’s something that I had to set a standard for myself and I know that we have a great room that’s going to do the same.”

It’s a very different place than he was last season when missing camp became the rocky start to a season that grew even rockier for both the Bruins and Swayman, resulting in the worst numbers of his career and a spot out of the playoffs for the first time since 2016 for the team. After Swayman had a 2.53 GAA and .916 save percentage in 44 games (43 starts) in 2023-24, his numbers dropped to 3.11 and .892 in 58 games last season.

But the perpetually confident Swayman seems not at all shaken, seems ready to enter the new season -- one in which the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and Team USA beckon -- with the belief in himself that has always been his hallmark.

And in that, the worlds helped tremendously.

“It’s an honor playing for the USA every time I get the opportunity to, but to finally do it, to win a gold medal, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “That tournament for me personally was a great cap to a year that I wanted better from. To just let it all go and just play my game again, I found a lot.

“Really excited to get that and just wanted to ride that high throughout the summer and into the season.”

Swayman will be on the short list of U.S. goalies for the Olympics; he was named to its roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February alongside the Winnipeg Jets' Connor Hellebuyck and the Dallas Stars' Jake Oettinger, though he did not see any action. It’s yet another reason for motivation as Swayman enters training camp and, beyond that, the season.

“It’s definitely in all of our minds,” Swayman said. “It’s an honor to be in that conversation. I know that I have to be the best that I can possibly be for the Boston Bruins in order to have my name on that Olympic roster. I’m going to do just that. If I’m helping my team right here, right now where my feet are, things will happen the right way.”