The World Championships are not the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals. Internationally for Team USA, beating Switzerland is not like dispatching Canada.
None of this matters. What’s important for the Boston Bruins is that Jeremy Swayman wore a gold medal on Sunday, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and felt a whole lot better about himself than he did six weeks ago.
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Swayman made 25 saves in Team USA’s 1-0 title win over the Swiss on Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden. The Bruins goalie concluded his run with a 7-0 record and a .921 save percentage. It was the Americans’ first gold at the tournament since 1933. Helping a team complete a task 92 years in the making is no small thing, regardless of how junior varsity the overseas competition may be to what is happening concurrently in North America. Swayman was an ace, just like he’d been every season save for 2024-25.
None of this was guaranteed for Swayman. Playing time, at that, was not a slam dunk.
Swayman arrived in Sweden on equal footing with the Seattle Kraken’s Joey Daccord. Daccord, in fact, got the first start on May 9. Daccord stopped 26 shots in the Americans’ 5-0 preliminary-round win over Denmark.
But after they alternated the first six games, Swayman made his second straight start on May 20 against Czechia. He made 25 of 27 saves in a 5-2 win. Swayman remained in net for the rest of the run. By the end, he had posted his second shutout in seven starts.
It was an exclamation point to a season that started with a question mark. For a time, neither Swayman nor the Bruins knew whether their contract disagreement would stretch into the regular season. It was only on the day the Bruins were scheduled to travel to South Florida for the season opener against the Florida Panthers that employee and employer shook hands on an eight-year, $66 million agreement.
In retrospect, it was the highlight to a forgettable NHL season. Swayman couldn’t recover from missing training camp. He was behind from beginning to end, aside from exceptions here and there.
It was not what the Bruins had in mind when they traded Linus Ullmark and put Swayman in the spotlight. Their full-time No. 1 goalie fell well short of expectations for the first time as a professional. Swayman’s shortcomings influenced the Bruins’ 33-39-10 season, which featured the selloff nobody saw coming when the goalie put pen to paper on Oct. 6, 2024.
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So it was with extra baggage, not just that of his gear, that Swayman departed Boston with gold in mind. He needed a reset. The swagger that dripped off him in the 2024 playoffs against the Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs was gone. Swayman had to write an introductory chapter that proved 2024-25 was an exception, not the rule.
Jeremy Swayman’s 2024-25 campaign with the Bruins didn’t live up to the expectations set by his $66 million contract. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Swayman accomplished his goal. He now enters offseason recovery and summer training with a 180-degree turn in mind and body. Wins and saves are critical for a goalie. They are two commodities Swayman compiled in abundance.
This is just what Swayman and the Bruins wanted. The 26-year-old is one of the franchise’s three most important players, alongside David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, in terms of how deeply they influence the organization’s direction. When he’s right, Swayman is a game-stealer. He is just as handy at turning losses into wins as when Pastrnak puts pucks in nets and McAvoy blasts bodies into the 10th row.
How Swayman turned his fortunes around is difficult to pinpoint. It probably didn’t hurt that he was competing for playing time with Daccord. He most surely felt the responsibility of pulling on the stars and stripes, just like he did at the 4 Nations Face-Off as the No. 3 goalie behind Connor Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger. Swayman wanted to show USA Hockey that he belongs on the 2026 Olympic roster, one that might be in flux when it comes to goaltending. Hellebuyck is no longer the slam-dunk starter following his playoff flameout. Oettinger is closing the gap.
Swayman does not want to be left behind.
It was a productive Worlds for the Bruins. Pastrnak led all players with 15 points. Elias Lindholm was second with 14. Andrew Peeke and Mason Lohrei joined Swayman as gold medalists.
You could argue, though, that few players had more to accomplish than Swayman. Time will tell whether his 139-save total will produce the old Swayman when the 2025-26 NHL season begins.
But in a year that has not made the Bruins happy so far, Swayman’s awakening is the team’s most important development of 2025.
(Top photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP via Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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