Bruins GM Don Sweeney wants to see more internal competition next season – and that starts in the goaltending department.

After signing a mammoth eight-year, $66 million contract, netminder Jeremy Swayman just about face-planted in 2024-25. In 58 games, he went 22-29-7 with a .892 save percentage and 3.11 goals against average, mediocre marks at best.

Sweeney suggested the team may have erred by not giving more games to Joonas Korpisalo. But if Swayman can’t get back to being the goalie they paid him to be, not much else matters. There’s always the possibility of a trade (this is the last year before his no-trade clause kicks in) but they’d be selling low on him if they went that route.

Considering Swayman’s previous personal high in games was 44, Sweeney was asked if he was concerned that his drop-off in play had anything to do with the increased workload.

“Well, in my exit meeting, Jeremy categorically denied that the extra workload was part of it,” said Sweeney. “In some ways, it also led Korpisalo to say he didn’t play enough and would like to have a little more of that lion’s share, and that’s part of the internal competition that I think we have to get back to and being able to push for playing time, for opportunity.

“There were opportunities in the course of the year where Korpisalo was playing really well and probably deserved the net. There were other times where our group felt that (they had to) to get Sway back on track, to put him in situations and leverage situations that arguably he should be playing and playing his best hockey. And if we’re going to be successful, we would like him to do that. We clearly would like him to get back to the level that he’s more than capable of getting to. That’s part of the reset, and it was a disjointed year for him and an extension of our team. He’s not to blame as the extension of our team, he’s just part of it. But again, leaning on Korpi and creating internal competition that says it’s not just de facto that you get the start, it certainly wasn’t previously to that (with Linus Ullmark), and it worked that both those guys pushed each other. And I want that back again.”

Korpisalo had better numbers than Swayman, but not by much. He was 11–10-3 with a 2.90 GAA and .893 save percentage.

Coaching search

One of the hottest coaching candidates on the market is the University of Denver’s David Carle, but it doesn’t sound like the Bruins will be in the mix for him, judging from Sweeney’s criteria for the next coach. Carle has spent his entire career at the collegiate level and Sweeney said having “exposure to the league is important.”

With former coaches Bruce Cassidy (Vegas) and now Jim Montgomery (St. Louis) having success elsewhere, the subject of coaching job security within the organization – and why Sweeney has survived multiple coaching firings with the organization – came up.

“I think the shelf life of a head coach is significantly shorter than one of a general manager or a team president,” said CEO Charlie Jacobs. “It’s the nature of the beast of the job. You can have players’ attention for a select window of time and then unfortunately, sometimes you lose it. It’s ours, it’s Don’s job to make sure that he’s got his hand on the pulse of whether or not the players have tuned out the head coach, and I feel he’s done a pretty good job of measuring that.”

Sweeney then jumped in to defend himself.

“I worked with Bruce for eight years in Providence before he took over the reins. I was part of Claude’s (Julien) tenure here for the whole time. I’m generally wired to be working with people for solutions and not looking for a quick fix. Bruce grew into a really good head coach in the National Hockey League, remains a really good head coach in the National Hockey League. I just worked with him in Four Nations, and we just won that together,” said Sweeney. “And we offered Monty a contract extension, couldn’t find a landing ground. He did a hell of a job in St Louis. He’s a good hockey coach. He led us to an historic season. Sometimes things go askew and you have to reevaluate and reassess. But generally, my tenure has been to work with people.”

Ideally, the B’s will have their coach in place before free agency, but that may not be completely in their control as Sweeney said they may want to talk to some people who’ll be involved in the playoffs that will go to June.

Price is right?

Jacobs defended the club’s decision to raise ticket prices 4% when asked if he’d rescind it based on the season being “an embarrassment,” in his words.

“I expect that you probably pay a higher electric bill than you did last year. I know that we, for instance, pay more to open our building for security, for ushers, for concession workers, for parking attendants, everything. People deserve a raise and an increase. Likewise, we increase our ticket prices as our expenses go,” said Jacobs. “I mentioned this before, every dollar we bring in, 50 percent goes to the players, we share it. We’re in a partnership together with them. The ticket increase, the price, whether it’s 4 percent or 9 percent, is all going back into the hockey club. So we’ve made our decision. We’ve raised our ticket prices, and no, we will not be rescinding that.”

Loose pucks

Sweeney said Ellias Lindholm (Sweden), David Pastrnak and Jakub Lauko (Czechia), and Andrew Peeke, Mason Lohrei and Swayman (U.S.) will be going to the World Championships in Denmark…

Sweeney said Pavel Zacha underwent a small procedure and John Beecher may also need one. The GM also reiterated his confidence that Hampus Lindholm, after undergoing a procedure to take out a bothersome screw stemming from his initial surgery on his broken kneecap, will be able to return at full strength in September.