The Boston Bruins have made some of the biggest free-agent acquisitions of the 2024 off-season, signing center Elias Lindholm and hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov to multi-year contracts.

But their biggest signing, in both the short and long terms, still hasn’t happened. It could eat up most, if not all, of the $8.6 million in salary cap space they have at the moment.

We’re referring, of course, to star goaltender and RFA Jeremy Swayman.

The 25-year-old made the starting job his own this past season in Boston, and he’s earned a massive raise on the $3.475 million he earned in 2023-24.

Swayman could sign a bridge deal that would take him through the next two seasons before he becomes a UFA leading into the 2026-27 campaign, but we suspect Bruins GM Don Sweeney will be offering Swayman a longer-term contract that at least doubles his salary beginning next season.

That’s mainly because, if Swayman did go to the open market, a $7-million-per-season contract would probably be the starting point in negotiations. There would be no shortage of suitors willing to pay at least that amount of money, if not considerably more, for Swayman’s services.

And don’t think agents for other star goalies aren’t closely watching what happens with Swayman’s contract.

New York Rangers superstar netminder Igor Shesterkin and Vegas Golden Knights starter Adin Hill are both going to be UFAs next summer, while Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko will be a UFA in 2026.

Each team has its in-house budgets to adhere to, but if Swayman swings for the fences and comes up with a deal with at least an $8-million cap hit, the tide will rise accordingly for all goalie boats.

Jeremy Swayman on the Boston Bruins organization: “I think it’s obvious how much I care about this organization, how much I care about this team and the city…I wouldn’t want it to be any other way.”

Now, the Golden Knights have shown multiple times already that they’re unafraid to change goalies even after relatively successful seasons. There’s been a constant carousel of goalies moving through Nevada since the franchise’s inception, with veterans including Hill, Marc-Andre Fleury, Robin Lehner, Logan Thompson, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick moving in and out of the organization. For that reason, Hill may not have nearly the same amount of negotiating leverage as his colleagues on other teams. The Golden Knights clearly have a philosophy that doesn’t prioritize goaltending, so Hill’s salary may not rise all that much from his 2024-25 salary of $4.9 million, and the term he gets may be only three or four years.

That said, Shesterkin and Demko are in a position to make much more money than the $5.66 million and $5 million they’re respectively making this coming season.

Shesterkin will be 29 years old next summer, smack in the middle of his prime, and at that point, backup Quick will be 39 years old and close to retirement. In Vancouver, youngster Arturs Silovs is currently just 23 years old, but just the idea of letting the 28-year-old Demko leave makes Canucks fans faint with angst. Both Shesterkin and Demko are crucial components of their team, and that will be reflected in their next contracts.

Demko had a better goals-against average (2.45) and save percentage (.918) in 2023-24 than Swayman did (2.53 and .916), while Shesterkin’s career averages are even better (2.43, .921) despite a slightly worse season by his standards. Even though Swayman is three years younger, each goalie should attempt to get a chunk more than what he gets.

At present, Florida Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky and his $10-million-per-season salary represent the high end of the goalie pay scale. But by the time Shesterkin, Demko and Swayman are close to Bobrovsky’s age, the league’s upper cap ceiling will have risen by millions, so it’s not at all out of the question that the aforementioned trio of netminders will top Bobrovsky’s amount of money.

But the speed of the goalie carousel likely means many, if not most, teams will be unwilling to pay that amount of cash for a position where performance can fluctuate to great degrees from month to month and year to year.

It’s all a delicate balance of money and meaningfulness, this dance between goaltenders and teams. But Swayman’s next contract will be a harbinger of what’s to come for elite goalies. Most teams have to tread delicately regarding both salary amount and contract term, but for the teams in need of goalie stability, keeping their current netminders happy and secure likely means they’ll be paying much more per season to those key players.