Jeremy Swayman’s offer sheet: which teams might be a good fit?

Teams had until Saturday afternoon to choose arbitration. Since goaltender Jeremy Swayman did not chose salary arbitration, the Boston Bruins were open to an offer sheet. Boston has $8.6M in cap room for their lone restricted free agent, but several teams could challenge them.

A hypothetical offer sheet for Swayman would likely be in the “Tier Five” range, requiring a salary of $6.87M-$9.16M and requiring the signing team to send the Bruins their first, second, and third-round picks (which may not be theirs) if they don’t match. Boston would certainly match a $9.16M max offer for Swayman, but they would be dangerously close to the salary-cap ceiling for the season.

The only teams that could sign Swayman in that area are the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, and Seattle Kraken, according to CapFriendly. After signing their restricted free agents, the Sabres and Red Wings will have little cap space to make deals, while the Predators and Islanders have NHL goaltenders. Additionally, the Flyers and Kraken lack cap capacity to trouble Boston.

Why not theorise about reigniting a great rivalry?

The Canadiens have just over $10M in restricted free agent space for Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron. Neither player expects to exceed that cap, therefore Montreal could make this trade. Sebastian Aho’s five-year, $42.27M contract from the Canadiens was eventually matched by the Hurricanes. Montreal might gain cap room this summer by moving Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia for nothing. Trading both players would give the Canadiens about $8M in cap space and allow them to add younger players.

The Canadiens could afford to send draft picks back to Boston. Montreal has a 2025 conditional first-round pick from the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh’s second-round pick, New Jersey’s third-round pick, and Vancouver’s third-round pick from various transactions. Even if the Canadiens had to trade their first, second, and third-round picks for the 2025 NHL Draft, they would still make four choice. Signing Swayman to an offer sheet would hurt Canadiens starting goalie Sam Montembeault. Last season, Montembeault went 16-15-9 in 40 games with a.903 save percentage and 3.14 GAA. On Dec. 1, 2023, Montreal’s brass extended Montembeault for three years, $9.45M depending on his performance.

Swayman has a 79-33-15 record in 125 starts with a.919 SV% and 2.34 GAA, outperforming Montembeault in Boston. The Canadiens may get a top goaltender and then fight their hated rivals.