What's the deal with Swayman?

WEEI-FM / WEEI

What's the deal with the Bruins and Jeremy Swayman's contract? Razor: "It's going to get done!" What does Andrew "Razor" Raycroft think about the Bruins offseason thus far?

Transcript

00:00What, what is the deal with Swayman?

00:02Is this going to get done?

00:03What's going on?

00:03Yeah, it's going to get done.

00:05It's just, like I said, everybody, especially this year that the Stanley

00:10cup went all the way to the end.

00:11There was like three days till the draft, three days, free agency, three

00:14days to development camp, and everybody's gone, everybody has their phones off.

00:20Everybody has taking some time.

00:22This is like the, for the three or four weeks right now of, you

00:26know, the season being actually off.

00:28So, uh, I, it's going to get done.

00:31Um, uh, they've gone through this a little bit last season.

00:35So the business side of it, they, they know where each other stands

00:39and have gone through it before.

00:40And, um, you know, fortunately for Jeremy, he's, he's very important

00:45and, and wants to be paid as such.

00:48And I give you credit because you were a voice at Nesson against the goalie

00:54duo entering the post season.

00:56You were kind of steadfast in this opinion.

00:59You were right.

01:00Um, did Don Sweeney make a mistake in not unloading Linus earlier?

01:06Um, well, no, well, they tried to, and Linus had, Linus was able to, to

01:10veto that and, and that was his right as a player and I'm always a player's right guy.

01:15But I mean, maybe if you try longer in the off season,

01:19well, I, I think, so what happened last?

01:22I think they would, I think, I don't know.

01:25I think that they tried last season as well, last off season.

01:30What happened last off season was because of the salary cap, no one made a trade.

01:34It was the first time ever in the NHL draft that no trades were made last season.

01:39Um, so there just wasn't a market.

01:41You couldn't get rid of anybody because everyone was up against the salary cap

01:45from the pandemic a couple of years earlier.

01:47Um, and everything needed to reset this summer, last summer.

01:51They just didn't have an opportunity to, I think they would have, if they could

01:54have, um, and I think they've got to, they traded Linus at the first possible

01:59time that they could actually do so.

02:02Um, which was just a couple of weeks ago.

02:03Linus aside, are you happy with all of the trades, all the movement that they've made?

02:07Like, I think everybody kind of expected that Ross Grislyk, like

02:11those guys were going to be gone.

02:12And yeah, yeah.

02:13I love, I love Zdorov.

02:14I think that's, they needed, how many times have I sat in this chair and talked

02:19about that deadlines, you know, or needing bigger defensemen, stronger, more

02:23physical people call in and talk about that as a left shot guy, basically sets

02:29up the, the, the Bruins back end for, for five years here, uh, you have McAvoy,

02:34Linholm and Zdorov lined up for those years, all on good numbers, all on

02:39good salary as the cap rises.

02:41So that's a great, great signing.

02:43The Bruins needed a centerman.

02:44We've all talked about the centerman to play with David Pasternak.

02:47Uh, the centerman's not winning, you know, losing Bergeron and Crecci.

02:51They went out and got the best center free agent available.

02:55Um, they, you have to pay for that of course.

02:57And that's why Linholm got $49 million, $50 million.

03:01It's, it's a good signing though.

03:03He's a great player.

03:04He's very, fits the mold of what Bruins centers need to do, play 200 foot game,

03:10play defense, uh, and work from the bat front from their own defensive end.

03:14So I think in that respect, he's a great, great play.

03:18Uh, it'll be, what I'm most curious about now is, is who's the

03:21young guy that's going to step up?

03:23Because they weren't able to go out and get another, uh, top six forward.

03:27And they lost a winger in Jake DeBruys that has played in the top

03:30six for them the last few years.

03:31So who is it?

03:33Lysell?

03:33Is it Merkulov?

03:34Is it somebody that we haven't heard of?

03:36Who, like a Patra from last season, who steps in and fills in that top six void?

03:41Uh, and, and that's, what's very interesting to me at this point.

03:45And so Monty, the, the head coach last year, obviously fell short.

03:51What year before fell short after the great regulations and release

03:55advanced to the second round.

03:56Where is he?

03:57Is this, is he as safe as ever?

03:59Is he, what, what's the deal with Monty and the organization?

04:02Yeah, he's, you know, he's, he's safe as an NHL coach can be.

04:06I think, I, I don't know if I had a computer, I'd look it up really quickly.

04:10I would assume he's one of the, the longest tenured coaches in the

04:14national hockey league being two years.

04:17Uh, there's a lot of turnover in the NHL.

04:19It's easy to fire coaches, uh, in, in the NHL in hockey.

04:24So I would guess he's in the top 10 of longest tenured.

04:28So that means, you know, you, you start ending up on borrowed

04:31time, three years, four years in that all beings.

04:34And that's just like in that I'm, I'm being very general in that.

04:37That's what coaches lifespans are.

04:40Right.

04:40I think he's done a great job.

04:41I think getting through the first round and finding a way to be

04:44Toronto after being up three, one, that that's a huge weight off of

04:48not just his shoulders, but a lot of the player's shoulders.

04:51And I thought they played Florida as well as anybody played

04:55Florida in, in the, in the playoffs.

04:58Um, they had opportunities.

05:00I think the, the one thing that leaves a bad taste in the mouth

05:03is not winning at home in, in the second round, losing all three

05:07games that they played against the Florida Panthers in the garden.

05:09That one stings a little bit, but from a coaching perspective, Jay

05:13Leach is coming in as an assistant, a new assistant, so that, that

05:16changes the makeup a little bit, but he's in a good spot.

05:19I think the players really enjoy playing for him.

05:21He's a great communicator and, uh, he's, he's had them play a really good style.

05:25That all being said, you need to win and you need to continue to make

05:28playoffs to, to have your job in the NHL.

05:31I don't think he's top 10 on the list.

05:33I'm looking at Bruce Cassidy number seven.

05:35Well, he would be the same as Cassidy.

05:37Okay.

05:37Right.

05:37So they're taught they're all tied for seven.

05:39So there's a, there's, there's probably like five or six guys that are two years

05:43that are all coming up on any of the lists.

05:45Yeah.

05:45Cause him and you know, um, one thing for me is I, I, I think it may happen

05:52that their regular season is not as successful as the last two.

05:55Yeah.

05:56And I feel like that's fine.

05:57Yes.

05:58They, we all, myself included, not, you know, I'm a relatively big hockey

06:03purist, but not the biggest, um, having two great goalies over the course of

06:0882 games is going to give you a bump over basically every team in the NHL.

06:13And this year, you know, I don't know how, uh, what's his name

06:17from Worcester who's coming up.

06:19Or no, the guy they traded for.

06:19Yeah.

06:20Corpus Salo.

06:21So, I mean, so I don't know.

06:22He's obviously not going to be as good as Linus.

06:23I don't think so.

06:24Yeah.

06:24But, but that'll be fine.

06:26Right.

06:26I mean, like it's, there'll be a little, they may suffer.

06:28Obviously they're more talented this year, you know, with the, with the moves

06:31they've just made in the off season, but at the, in the, in the net, they're

06:34not going to be as dominant throughout 82 games.

06:36And I think that'll be fine.

06:37Yeah, it's, I agree a hundred percent.

06:40And to, to think that they're going to start the season the way they have the

06:44last two years, where they basically went 19 and one in the first 20, like

06:47last season, they did the same thing.

06:49It was, they ran, rattled off eight in a row.

06:51It's, you know, in October, I don't, it's really hard to see how

06:55that is actually going to happen again.

06:59Um, I suppose you can't discount it cause they have done it two years in a

07:02row with two very different type teams.

07:05Um, but, but I would agree that I think the division's gotten better.

07:09That's a lot of it, right?

07:10Like what the NHL schedule dictates kind of how many games you win as well.

07:15And, and the, you know, the Detroit's the Ottawa's the Buffalo

07:18seem to have gotten better.

07:19And that just takes a couple of wins here and there away from the Bruins.

07:23I think, I don't think anyone's concerned about that.

07:26I think last year there would have been, because we didn't know

07:28what the team was going to be.

Category

Transcript

Recommended