Jeremy Swayman’s rise over the last 15 months has put him back in the conversation with the NHL’s best goaltenders, but EA Sports isn’t treating him like one of the top three just yet.
After a messy stretch tied to his contract holdout before the 2024-25 season, Swayman went through a rough regular season with the Boston Bruins. Then the turnaround hit fast. He found his game in Team USA’s crease at the World Championship and helped lead the U.S. to gold, followed that with a Vezina-finalist season for Boston, and briefly picked up time with USA at the Olympics.
That body of work earned him real recognition in the Vezina voting, where he finished among the top three goalies. It also makes the NHL 27 ratings sting a little: Swayman landed sixth overall among goaltenders.
EA Sports rolled out the top defensive and goaltending ratings on August 19, 2026, with Cale Makar, Zach Werenski and Quinn Hughes all at 95 overall, while Andrei Vasilevskiy topped the goalies at 94. Swayman was left behind a group that also included Vasilevskiy and Ilya Sorokin, the other two finalists in the Vezina race.
That placement isn’t outrageous on paper. Vasilevskiy rediscovered his dominant form last season, and Sorokin was in MVP conversations at one point if the New York Islanders had managed to finish the job and make the playoffs. But Swayman’s case is built on more than raw numbers, and that’s where the debate starts.
EA Sports appears to have leaned more heavily on traditional stats than on the full picture. Igor Shesterkin and Logan Thompson both posted stronger save percentages, but Swayman’s impact showed up in the underlying numbers, especially goals saved above expected. That’s the kind of performance that helped push him into the upper tier of NHL goaltenders again.
The question now is whether NHL 27 is simply a snapshot, or whether Swayman forces a correction once the season gets going. If he starts 2026-27 the way he finished the last one, Boston’s starter could be in line for one of those post-launch ratings fixes. And if he’s once again bailing the Bruins out night after night, a 90 overall would look a lot more reasonable than sixth on the list.
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