Before the puck dropped on the 2025-26 NHL season, the thinking across the NHL world was that if the Boston Bruins were going to get back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, then goalie Jeremy Swayman was going to need to have a bounce-back season.
The 2024-25 season was brutal from the beginning. He held out of training camp because of his contract dispute, then he struggled to find any consistency throughout the season. It was one nightmare after another. Night after night, day after day.
General manager Don Sweeney made some additions and subtractions from his roster from last year, but if Boston was going to return to the postseason, it was going to heavily rely on the shoulders of Swayman. When the dust settled, he was good. In fact, he was very good all season long, and the Black and Gold are back in the postseason in large part because of him. His season didn't go unnoticed across the league.
Bruins Jeremy Swayman is a 2026 Vezina Trophy finalist
It's the time of the year when the NHL is releasing the finalists for its annual awards. As for the 2026 Vezina Trophy, Swayman is one of the three finalists, along with Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Here are the Vezina Trophy finalists! 🏆 #NHLAwards
— NHL (@NHL) April 29, 2026
The Trophy is awarded annually to the League’s top goaltender. pic.twitter.com/gr63RtHzAy
This regular season, Swayman went 31-18-4 with a 2.71 goals against average and a .907 save percentage with two shutouts. Those numbers are a vast improvement from his 22-29-7 record with a 3.11 GAA and a .892 SV%, but with four shutouts.
Just who ends up winning the award remains to be seen, but given how things ended last year and how things went this year, Swayman is certainly a worthy finalist. There are several reasons as to why the Bruins are in the playoffs, because of the success of a lot of players during the regular season, and Swayman is right at the top of that list.
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