Jeremy Swayman was a curiosity when he was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft’s fourth round as an Alaska native, playing juniors in South Dakota, while committed to play NCAA hockey in Maine.
Four years and 10 NHL games later, the 23-year-old is a curiosity no more, as he has risen to the top of Boston’s prospects depth chart and could very well be the starting netminder when the B’s open their season at home against the Dallas Stars Oct. 16.
Even without the gaudy height of 6-foot-4 or taller that seemed to be the rage (Swayman is listed at 6-foot-2), the former Black Bears star who won the 2020 Mike Richter Award as college hockey’s top netminder at the University of Maine (along with Hockey East MVP honors) is the total package. He spent three years in Orono seeing a lot of shots. Prior to that, he stopped a ton of rubber with the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede.
Through it all, his statistics remained remarkably consistent, despite playing for teams that didn’t generate a lot of offensive support. In short, Swayman gave his teams a chance to win just about every time he took the net.
This piece will break down why Swayman has been successful at every level he’s played to date, including a limited sample size in Boston last spring. Moreover, we’ll tell you why we see the trend continuing.
Style analysis: Why Swayman is successful
Beyond the obvious athletic ability, quickness, hand-eye coordination and raw talent needed to be able to play in the NHL, there are three major attributes that Swayman possesses which is why he has been a top stopper at every level to include his limited stint in the NHL.
1. Puck tracking- When it comes to successful goaltenders at any level, it all starts with the ability to find the puck, see the puck and keep the center of mass/body square to the puck. Great shooters are skating with their heads up, looking for any holes or openings.
Goalies who have trouble locating the puck will have trouble stopping it. Swayman moves his whole body when opponents move the play around in the defensive zone, not expending excess energy, but ensuring that he keeps visual contact and his torso lined up to the puck. Players who just follow the play with their eyes tend to lose spatial awareness and can come off their spots and angles, allowing goals around them or worse, through them.
“He reminds me of (Rask) like as far as how poised he is,” Chris Wagner said. “Especially in traffic too, he fights off everything and never really gets caught out of position. He controls his rebounds well…I’m very impressed and don’t think last year was a fluke.”
Swayman does a great job of locating the puck through screens by getting low or seeing around net front traffic. He doesn’t waste a lot of time trying to move players out of his way, which leads to him coming out of his stance and opening up holes for the best shooters to hit.
2. Reading the play- When talking about hockey sense, most of the time, analysts apply it to skaters, but hockey IQ for goalies is just as critical and Swayman has it in spades.
One of the things that make goaltenders elite is their ability to read the play and anticipate where the most dangerous scoring chances will come from and whether the puck carrier will elect to shoot or pass to a teammate in a better scoring area. Middle-of-the-pack goalies at any level are guessers- they might be great athletes who can make some acrobatic saves, but they don’t necessarily know where the shot is coming from and sometimes have to be more lucky than good.
Swayman reads the play and gets to his spots decisively. Rarely if ever, do you see him beaten into an empty net. That doesn’t happen by accident. Because NHL shooters are so skilled and deceptive, the top netminders need every nanosecond of time to get set, see the shot and make the save. Boston’s rookie goalie is an asset in this regard.
3. Compete level- Swayman competes hard and doesn’t give up on plays. He’s not helter-skelter, with manic energy the way Tim Thomas was, and his even-keeled demeanor off the ice belies a fierce competitor who hates to be scored on.
Whether dropping his pads as he pushes laterally to make a high danger save look routine or he scrambles to dive across the crease in desperation, Swayman gives it his all. But his compete isn’t just about game situations. It’s about his practice habits and off-ice work. He stays out and just goes through repetition after repetition, shot after shot.
Goalies stop pucks. Swayman is a goalie. It isn’t that complicated.
The best competitors are dedicated to their craft and they understand that someone is always trying to take their job. Swayman is trying to grab one of just 64 spots available on the planet- a goalie job in the NHL, so he’s been focused in the offseason on being prepared and so far, so good. From the beginning of the preseason, he’s been dialed-in and done well in his limited exhibition appearances.
Against Philadelphia in a 2-1 OT loss, Swayman was a rock in net, playing behind a team that was largely expected to be in the AHL with Providence this season.
The next factors: mental toughness and maturity
Finally, life is a series of ups and downs, and with goaltenders, that is especially true.
Swayman has an even-keeled personality. He’s laid back, but not to the point of being near-comatose. He’s a good teammate. He knows he’s in a great position to achieve his hockey dreams, but takes nothing for granted.
“I’m happy to be here,” he said. “Not too many people get to put on the Spoked B. And to be able to do that every day with some of the best talent in the world is pretty incredible, so I really do want to cherish every moment that I get to do that. That’s just special and the way I live my life is just moment to moment. That’s all you can control; control what you can control and enjoy it, because it’s the best game in the world. We love playing hockey, and it’s hard not to have fun.”
We could go on, but with a quote like that, there isn’t much more you can say. Swayman gets it.
It is also why he could very well be the team’s first starter when the games begin to count. By controlling what he can control, he’s got the chance to do just that.
When it comes to establishing himself as a top NHL goaltender, don’t be surprised if he makes that jump sooner than anyone thought possible.
