By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter / X @RyanJBosworth
The Boston Bruins’ front office held its end-of-season press conference, featuring CEO Charlie Jacobs, Bruins president Cam Neely, and general manager Don Sweeney. Media members asked the trio several questions about the Bruins’ disappointing 2024-25 campaign.
One of the topics brought up was Jeremy Swayman’s increased workload. When asked if it had impacted Swayman’s performance, Sweeney responded, “Well, in my exit meeting, Jeremy [Swayman] categorically denied that the extra workload was part of it.”
Following his comments on Swayman, Sweeney also addressed Joonas Korpisalo’s situation, mentioning that Korpisalo expressed dissatisfaction with his playing time this season. “It also led to [Joonas] Korpisalo saying that he didn’t play enough and would like to have had a little more of that lion’s share,” Sweeney noted.
The discussion point arose during the management media scrum due to Jeremy Swayman’s underwhelming performance during the 2024-25 campaign. The 26-year-old netminder appeared in 58 games for the Black and Gold this season, starting all of them.
Over that stretch, the Anchorage, Alaska native posted a record of 22-29-7, which is a noticeable decline from his strong 2023-24 showing, where he went 25-10-8 across 44 games. While it was a challenging season for Swayman, there were still flashes where his true potential came through.
While he appeared in just 27 games this season — compared to Swayman’s 58 — Korpisalo outperformed his counterpart in several key categories. The veteran netminder posted a 2.90 goals against average and a .893 save percentage, while Swayman struggled to a 3.11 goals against average and a .892 save percentage.
Neither goaltender delivered anything close to Vezina-caliber numbers in 2024-25, but based on the performance gap, Korpisalo’s gripe about a lack of playing time carries some weight, which is a point Don Sweeney acknowledged during his season-ending remarks. “There were opportunities in the course of the year where, you know, Korpisalo was playing really well and probably deserved the net.”
Most recently, we saw the “internal competition” Sweeney referred to with the Bruins’ goalie tandem of Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark. During the 2023-24 season, the games were split almost evenly, with Ullmark starting 39 games and Swayman 43. Even with a rotation in place, both goalies had to consistently compete for their ice time, which is exactly the kind of dynamic Bruins general manager Don Sweeney hopes to get back to in the coming seasons.
Although Jeremy Swayman is signed for the next seven years as Boston’s No. 1 goaltender, maintaining a sense of competition remains crucial. As Don Sweeney said during his press conference, “creating an internal competition that says it’s not just de facto that you get the start, you know, it certainly wasn’t previously to that, and it worked that both those guys pushed each other, and I want that back again.” That mindset motivates both goaltenders to stay on top of their game and build momentum through strong performances, while rewarding the goaltender that puts up the strongest performances.
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