Jeremy Swayman Junior Review

[Agito 217]

Youth



 

Swayman was born on November 24, 1998 in Anchorage, Alaska to Anne Boesenberg and Ken Swayman. He began watching college ice hockey games as a child when his father would take him to watch the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. Swayman first played as a goalie at the age of five, and he quickly became attached to the position. He played youth ice hockey around Anchorage and spent two years with the South Anchorage High School team before beginning his junior ice hockey career. He expected to stay in Alaska and play for the Kenai River Brown Bears of the North American Hockey League, but was cut from the team in favor of two older goalies. Instead, with the help of several family friends, Swayman joined the Pikes Peak Miners of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League. In 18 games for the Miners, Swayman has a .940 save percentage (SV%) and a 1.79 goals-against average.

After one season with the Miners, Swayman was selected by the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League in the 12th round of the 2016 USHL Phase II Draft. Sioux Falls coach Scott Owens first noticed Swayman during his season at Pikes Peak, and he remained impressed with the goalie during training camp. After leading all USHL goalies in save percentage in the preseason, Swayman stopped 48 shots on goal in his Stampede debut, a 3-2 shootout win over the Tri-City Storm. In 32 games with Sioux Falls, Swayman posted a 7-18-3 record, .914% and 2.90 GAA, and NHL Central Scouting named him the No. 12 prospect among all North American goalies. At the end of the USHL season, the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) selected Swayman in the fourth round, 111th overall, of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. 


College

 

By the time the Bruins drafted him, Swayman had already committed to play college ice hockey for the University of Maine, beginning with the 2017-2018 season. Swayman made his collegiate field hockey debut on October 7, 2017, making 26 saves, but taking the loss in Maine's 5-1 loss to UConn. After making 40 saves to give the Black Bears a 5-2 win over Boston University on Nov. 17, the Hockey East Conference named Swayman Rookie of the Week. He received the award again on Jan. 8 after recording his first career shutout, stopping all 31 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over Boston University. He was named Hockey East Rookie of the Month for January after going 4-2-2 with a .928 batting average and 2.34 ERA in eight games. Swayman finished his freshman season with a .920 save percentage and a 2.74 ERA, while his 15-13-3 record was the best of any Maine rookie goalie since Ben Bishop. He was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team and received honorable mention at the All-Star Game.

Swayman's first Hockey East honor of the 2018-2019 season came on November 19, when he was named Defensive Player of the Week after making 79 saves in a two-game series against Boston University. He won the award again on Dec. 3 after stopping 74 shots in a two-game series against Vermont. On January 25, Swayman made a career-high 53 saves in Maine's 4-3 win over UMass. After going 5-2-1 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.86 earned run average in the month of February, with 30 or more saves in six of his outings, Swayman was named Hockey East's Goaltender of the Month. For the month of February, Swayman was named Hockey East Goaltender of the Month. Swayman finishes his sophomore season with a .919 batting average, a 2.77 earned run average and a 14-17-4 record in 35 games, and is named to the All-Hockey East third team. 

After a rough start to the 2019-2020 season, in which Swayman made 52 saves but Maine lost 7-0 to Providence, Swayman posted a .962 save percentage and a 1.22 earned run average over the next six games. He was named the February 2020 Goalie of the Month after going 4-2-1 with 210 saves for the month, including two shutouts. Swayman finished the season with an 18-11-5 record, .939 SV%, 2.07 GAA, and led all NCAA Division I goalkeepers with 1,099 saves for the year. He received a number of postseason honors, starting with the Walter Brown Award, given to the best American-born college field hockey player in New England. Field hockey East named him to the First Team All-Star, Goaltending Champion, and Player of the Year. He was also honored on the All-USCHO Second Team, the first Maine goaltender to receive CCM/AHCA All-American East First Team honors since Spencer Abbott in 2012, and the New England Hockey Writers Association named him the Leonard Fowle New England MVP. He was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best men's college ice hockey player in the United States, an honor that went to Scott Perunovich of the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs that year. Swayman closed out the 2020 awards season with the Mike Richter Award, given to the top NCAA Division I men's ice hockey goaltender of the year. 

At the end of the 2019-2020 season, Swayman announced that he would be leaving Maine to begin his professional field hockey career with the Bruins. He finished his collegiate career as Maine's all-time leader with 3,130 saves and 5,906:45 minutes played, while his GAA of 2.51 was fifth in franchise history and his .927 percentage was behind Jimmy Howard.

Professional

 

Swayman officially signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Bruins on March 18, 2020.  At the time, ice hockey at the NCAA, NHL and American Hockey League (AHL) levels had all been suspended due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Swayman's professional field hockey career began in the 2020-2021 season, when he was assigned to the Providence Bruins, Boston's AHL affiliate.  He won his first seven games of the season, posting a 1.57 ERA and a .942 GAA during that time. In nine games for Providence, Swayman posted an 8-1-0 record with a .933 save percentage and a 1.89 earned run average, and was named to the AHL Atlantic Division All-Star team at the end of the season. 

With Tuukka Rask sidelined by an upper body injury and Jaroslav Halák testing positive for COVID-19, Swayman was promoted to make his NHL debut on April 6, 2021. He made 40 saves as the Bruins won 4-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers. His first NHL shutout, meanwhile, came on April 16, when he stopped all 25 shots he faced in the Bruins' 3-0 win over the New York Islanders. Swayman played in 10 games over the Bruins' final six weeks of the regular season, during which time he posted a 7-3-0 record with a .945 save percentage and a 1.50 earned run average. This regular season performance prompted coach Bruce Cassidy to choose Swayman over Halák as Rask's backup goaltender for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He made his playoff debut in Game 5 of the Bruins' second round playoff series against the Islanders, relieving Rask for the third period. Swayman faced three shots, stopping two and allowing a Brock Nelson goal in a game the Bruins lost 5-4. Cassidy opted not to play Swayman in Game 6 and the Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs with their 6-2 loss to the Islanders.

While Halák left the Bruins to join the Vancouver Canucks in the 2021 offseason, Rask underwent surgery to repair a torn hip labrum and was expected to miss the first half of the 2021-22 season. Without their two veterans, the Bruins turned to Swayman and freshman Linus Ullmark to fill in at the goaltending positions in the lineup for the year. Through his first eight games of the season, Swayman had a 5-3-0 record with a .908 save percentage and a 2.39 earned run average, with his numbers partially inflated by a five-goal outing against the Flyers on October 20. Rask returned to the Bruins on January 11, and Swayman, who had an 8-6-2 record with a .918 save percentage and a 2.26 earned run average, was sent to Providence to make room for the other goalie. Rask soon suffered a setback in his recovery, and Swayman was promoted to Boston in late January, a promotion that became permanent when Rask announced his retirement in February.  After going 5-1-1 with a .960 save percentage, a 1.13 earned run average, and two shutouts in seven starts that month, Swayman was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for February 2022.  Swayman finished the regular season with a 23-14-3 record in 40 games and led all NHL rookie goaltenders with a 2.37 ERA, a .913 GAA and three shutouts."The New England Sports Network and the Bruins awarded Swayman the 2022 Seventh Player Award, given annually to the player who "performs beyond expectations."  The Bruins faced the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, with Swayman making his first playoff start in Game 3. He made 25 saves on 27 shots as Boston won 4-2. Swayman finished the seven-game series with a 2.63 GAA and .911 save percentage in five appearances, but the Hurricanes shut out the Bruins 3-2 in the winner-take-all game. Swayman finished fifth for the 2022 Calder Memorial Trophy and was also named to the NHL All-Rookie Team at goalie. 

Victory Hockey League


Eventually Swayman was sent to the Victory Hockey League for his talent. He signed a one-year contract as a back-up for the Mexico City Kings. He will play 25 games under which he will finish with 21 wins, 3 losses and 1 overtime loss which will give him a 0.914 % as in his debut in the world of field hockey. Later his contract will be terminated because of the S85 Draft.