Now that the dust has settled and the overreaction is over with after general manager Don Sweeney received a two-year contract extension, it’s time for the Boston Bruins and their fans to move on to see what transpires over the rest of the off-season. There will be a lot of eyes watching every move made and not made.
As Sweeney embarks on an off-season where it feels like he needs to get nearly every decision right, he still needs a head coach, a plan for the Entry Draft, and to prepare for whom to target in free agency beginning July 1 and which free agents of his own to retain. With that said, here are three thoughts on Sweeney’s extension that runs through the 2027-28 season.
Biggest Entry Draft for Sweeney since 2015
Just a short time on the job in 2015, Sweeney made moves that gave him the 13th, 14th, and 15th picks of the draft. Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zach Senyshyn, the three straight picks, are no longer with the Black and Gold. DeBrusk left in free agency last summer for the Vancouver Canucks, Zboril was traded, as was Senyshyn.
We could sit here and break down who was missed in that draft, but a decade later, it’s time to move on and focus on the seventh overall pick next month in Los Angeles. There is a dire need to add a young, impactful center as soon as possible center and that’s where they go in the draft. There are a handful that project to the NHL centers, and Sweeney and his scouting staff need to get this pick right. No more excuses.
Are you really surprised by the extension?
As expected, the overreaction and frustration with the fans were where you would expect them to be. But again, are you surprised that this happened and was announced? Entering his final year of his current deal, there was no way that President Cam Neely was going to let his little buddy enter the off-season as a lame duck GM.
I tried telling people that Sweeney wasn’t going anywhere, and comments from CEO Charlie Jacobs multiple times late in the season and at the end of season media availability confirmed what most were thinking, let alone wanting to admit. Sweeney will get a chance to turn this around one more time with an extension in place.
Last chance to hire a coach
Whether it’s true or not, there was a report that Rick Tocchet shunned the Bruins in their coaching search because of uncertainty surrounding Sweeney’s future in Boston and his history of firing coaches. Again, who knows if that report is accurate, but if it is, does it surprise anyone? Is that why the extension was announced just a couple of days after the report surfaced?
Who knows, but what we do know is that Sweeney needs to get the right hire behind the bench, or it will be his last hiring. It’s not like he has hired and fired two underperforming coaches; he’s hired and fired two Jack Adams Award winners in three years. To compound matters, Bruce Cassidy went on to win the Stanley Cup in his first season behind the Vegas Golden Knights bench. A week after firing Jim Montgomery in November, he was hired by the St. Louis Blues and led them from near the bottom of the Western Conference to seconds away from bouncing the Presidents' Trophy winners in the first round.
Not a great look for Sweeney or the Bruins front office, and this hire must be a knock it out of the park home run, nothing less.
