Elliotte Friedman says Jeremy Swayman is among 3 Vezina finalists
elliotte friedman says Jeremy Swayman is one of three finalists for the Vezina Trophy, a line that lands after the Bruins goalie put together his best NHL season and then steadied Boston in the postseason. The timing matters because the Bruins are still trying to extend a best-of-7 series after falling behind 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres.
Swayman’s rebound season
Swayman finished the regular season 31-18-4 with a 2.71 goals-against average, a.908 save percentage and two shutouts in 55 games. That came after what had been the worst season of his NHL career before this bounce-back year, and it earned him a place alongside Ilya Sorokin and Andrei Vasilevskiy as Vezina finalists.
He also arrived here from a different point in the Bruins’ arc. Over the summer, Marco Sturm first spoke with him after being hired as Boston’s new coach, and Sturm told him, “I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to talk about what happened in the past, I didn’t really give a [expletive].” He added, “We’re going to move forward.”
Boston’s trust in Swayman
The Bruins backed that reset with an eight-year, $66 million contract after Swayman missed training camp. He also had already shared a top-end goalie résumé with Linus Ullmark in 2023, when the two won the William M. Jennings Trophy, given to the goalie or goalies who allow the fewest goals in a season.
This postseason has kept the same theme running. Swayman has a 2.87 GAA and.910 save percentage, and Boston needed him after Game 4 spiraled into a 4-0 first-period deficit. He barked at the Bruins bench after coming off the ice, then answered with a single power-play goal allowed in Boston’s 2-1 overtime victory in Game 5.
Game 6 at TD Garden
Sturm did not hide what the team thinks of the goalie now. “We know how important he is for us as a team,” he said, and added, “And I also know why we’re in this position, why we’re still playing, and he’s a big part of it.” He also said of Swayman’s response after Game 4, “That’s the beauty about him, I would say,” before calling the Vezina news “great, it’s amazing.”
Boston gets Game 6 on Friday at TD Garden at 7:30 p.m. ET, with the series still sitting at 3-2 against Buffalo. For Swayman, the award nod and the playoff stretch are now tied to the same test: keep the Bruins alive, and keep the season moving.
