Bruins Forced to Cut 5 Players in Jeremy Swayman’s Aftermath
The Boston Bruins, fresh off signing Jeremy Swayman to a significant eight-year, $66 million contract, were forced to make a few roster cuts to stay below the salary cap as they gear up for the season opener against the Florida Panthers.
On Sunday, Bruins GM Don Sweeney waived five players, including forwards Patrick Brown, Jeffrey Viel, defenseman Billy Sweezey, and goaltenders Brandon Bussi and Jiri Patera, to create necessary roster space and cap relief. On top of those five cuts, the Bruins also re-assigned nine players to their AHL affiliate team, the Providence Bruins.
The list of players demoted to the minors includes Ryan Bischel, Michael Callahan, Riley Duran, Jackson Edward, Brett Harrison, Kasimir Kaskisuo, Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov, and Jaxon Nelson. All moves considered, the combined transactions freed up nearly $2 million in cap space as the team finalizes its 26-man roster.
According to PuckPedia, the Bruins entered Monday with 21 of 23 players under contract in their roster and with $1.9 million in cap space. Swayman’s hefty contract, worth $66 million over eight years and carrying a cap hit of $8.25 million, made the transactions inevitable for the Bruins to comply with the NHL roster rules. The starting netminder of Boston is also now one of the highest-paid goaltenders in the NHL, trailing only Carey Price ($10.5 million per season), Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million), Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9.5 million), and Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5 million).
Among the players cut on Sunday, Bussi was expected to have the largest role in the NHL roster as he was projected to be the team’s backup before his extension. With Swayman signed, however, that changed as Joonas Korpisalo will take on that role. Although Brown, Viel, Sweezey, and the rest of the waived and re-assigned players couldn’t find a spot on the Bruins’ NHL roster, they will have the time to build strong cases at Providence and earn a call-up in case of emergency with inevitable injuries coming at some point.
