Boston Bruins make controversial decision immediately after signing Swayman

Particularly over the last few weeks, tensions between Jeremy Swayman and Don Sweeney grew considerably, but ultimately, after much drama and conjecture, the two parties reached an understanding. Only a few days remained before the 2024-25 regular season was scheduled to start, but the Bruins and Swayman managed to come to an agreement, with the 25-year-old receiving $8.25 million annually for the following eight seasons.

The team will now play their season opener away from home against the Florida Panthers, barring any cancellations, but Swayman won't be starting in goal. Although Joonas Korpisalo signed a new contract, he is still expected to start in net for the team in game one. A few weeks ago, the team stated that if a deal could not be reached, Korpisalo would be their starting forward.

Given Korpisalo's experience, it's undoubtedly a step down from their elite level play after dealing with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark for the previous few years. With a terrible .890 save percentage the previous season with the Ottawa Senators, Korpisalo gave up one of the worst save percentages in the NHL. However, he will play with a much better team in Boston, so perhaps he can recover and find his touch from 2022-2023, when he put up a .917 percentage between LA and Columbus.

It doesn't feel right to see Korpisalo in goal with No. 1 locked up for the foreseeable future, even though it won't be long until Swayman is ready to go for Boston this season. For now, we'll just have to wait and see what this Bruins team would have looked like if that deal had fallen through.