BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Bruins signed goalie Jeremy Swayman on Sunday to an eight-year contract that will pay him $66 million, ending a second straight summer of contentious negotiations just two days before the season opener .

The deal comes a year after the team took Swayman to arbitration and less than a week after Bruins president Cam Neely told reporters: “I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.” Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, denied that the team had offered the 25-year-old from Alaska $64 million.

But in the end they did, avoiding a holdout that threatened to derail the season for the Original Six franchise that has had six (non-pandemic-shortened) 100-point seasons in a row but hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since 2019.

The $8.25 average annual value makes Swayman, who has never before worked a season as a team’s sole top goalie, among the top five highest-paid goalies in the NHL. Only Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck make more.

A restricted free agent, Swayman had missed all of training camp . The sides faced a Dec. 1 deadline for him to sign or sit out the entire season, a potential disaster for a team that last year had two top goalies — Swayman and 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark — rotating in the net until the beginning of the playoffs.

After serving as the No. 2 to Ullmark in Boston’s record-setting 2022-23 season , Swayman failed to come to terms on a long-term contract in the summer of 2023 and was awarded a $3.475 million deal in arbitration. He bristled at the process and said: “I don’t want to do it ever again.”

Swayman alternated with Ullmark last year, making 43 starts in the regular season with a 2.53 goals-against average before winning the No. 1 job in the playoffs. The Bruins lost to eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida in the second round.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said signing Swayman in the offseason was his top priority, but he traded Ullmark away before locking up Swayman, timing that gave the player leverage in negotiations.

When training camp began in September, Swayman was still unsigned. The Bruins had Joonas Korpisalo, who was acquired from the Senators in the Ullmark trade, and 26-year-old Brandon Bussi, who played 41 games for Providence of the AHL last season, on the roster.

Coach Jim Montgomery said at the beginning of camp that he was treating Swayman’s absence like an injury: “It’s next man up.”

Korpisalo started 49 games for Ottawa last season with a 3.27 GAA. Boston also got the Senators’ 2024 first-round draft pick and forward Mark Kastelic in the deal.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL