By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter / X @RyanJBosworth
Jeremy Swayman had an extremely disappointing 2024-25 season with the Boston Bruins. The contract negotiation holdout leading to a late signing, which was after the conclusion of training camp, put Swayman behind the 8-ball, and he never caught up.
Swayman, along with two other members of the Boston Bruins, Andrew Peeke and Mason Lohrei, went overseas after the 2024-25 season to join Team USA in Sweden to compete in the IIHF World Championship. Through six starts with Team USA, Swayman has a 6-0-0 record, a goals against average of 1.99, and a .905 save percentage. While Swayman has strong stats through four games played in the tournament thus far, it hasn’t all been pretty.
Swayman opened the tournament in Team USA’s 6-0 victory over Hungary. Swayman saw 13 shots and saved all 13, posting a 1.00 save percentage. It was a strong, promising tournament start for the netminder who had a rough year in Boston.
Things had a bit of a quick turnaround for the Anchorage, Alaska native in his second start for the Red, White, and Blue, which saw Team USA square up against Norway. The United States had a 5-1 lead over Norway at the start of the second period, but allowed Norway to creep back into the game, scoring four unanswered goals to tie things up and send the game into overtime. Swayman surrendered five goals to Norway, but Team USA was able to score in overtime to secure the win, despite a less than stellar game for Swayman.
Swayman’s third start of the tournament would come against Kazakhstan, which would result in a 6-1 win for the United States. Swayman would only surrender one goal to Kazakhstan, which would come after six unanswered goals for Team USA. The Bruins’ netminder would stop 16 of 17 shots faced for a save percentage of .942%. A promising improvement from his game against Norway, but Kazakhstan is definitely not as strong of a team as some of the competition in this tournament.
Swayman and Team USA squared off against his Bruins teammate, David Pastrnak, and Team Czechia on May 20th, where the Red, White, and Blue would come out on top in a 5-2 victory. Swayman stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced, posting a .925 save percentage.
Swayman’s fifth start, which came against Finland, took place on May 22nd and would prove to be his fifth win in a commanding 6-2 victory. Swayman would stop 20 of 22 shots faced throughout the game, despite going down 2-1 early in the game. Team USA would end up running away with the game, putting up four unanswered goals between the second and third periods to give them a spot in the semi-final game.
Earlier today, Team USA squared off against Team Sweden in the IIHF World Championships semi-final game. The semi-final matchup would be Swayman’s sixth tournament start between the pipes. Swayman would stop all of the 15 shots he faced in the first and second period before Sweden’s William Nylander and Elias Lindholm were able to sneak two goals passed Swayman. Those two would prove to be the only two Swayman allows, as he’d go on to save 27 of the total 29 shots he faced in the semi-final matchup.
With their semi-final win over Sweden, Team USA has clinched a spot in the gold medal game, which will take place tomorrow against Switzerland. Swayman will likely be between the pipes, but no decision has been made as of yet.
Overall, Swayman had a very strong tournament in the Red, White, and Blue, despite some weaknesses that we saw during the 2024-25 season creep in. There were certainly goals he should’ve had, but his performance is a great building block in his offseason to recoup and have a bounce-back year in 2025-26 in the Black and Gold.
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