Ever since former Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was unceremoniously fired two weeks ago on a Monday night in mid-June, it's been a rather strange period of time for the black and gold. Last week, it was reported that B's captain Patrice Bergeron would be returning for another season with the club but thus far, nothing has been neither confirmed nor denied about that key piece of news. The team still doesn't have a new head coach yet with the leading candidates apparently being former BU and Rangers head coach David Quinn and former Providence Bruins and current Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach. Meh. Remind me again why exactly that Cassidy was fired? Today, things took another predictable but still gross turn as Boston signed its average GM Don Sweeney to a multi-year contract extension.
Don't get me wrong, Sweeney is a smart guy (did you know that he went to Harvard?!) and he clearly works hard at his very demanding job but his draft record is nothing short of appalling. Granted it is an inexact science and you will always miss out on countless players who develop into stars but Sweeney's swings and misses have been notorious, none more so than when he had three first round picks in 2015 and right wing Jake DeBrusk is the only one that has done anything at the NHL level. So what does he do well? His free agent signings are usually nothing impressive, leaving some decent trades to be his calling card. I will say that he has done pretty well with some of those like getting center Charlie Coyle from Minnesota and defenseman Hampus Lindholm (we hope!) from Anaheim but nothing that has set the world on fire or brought another Stanley Cup to the Bruins.
The fact that Sweeney is still here (where he has been working since 2015) while Cassidy has already moved on to Las Vegas is maddening. President Cam Neely is also still getting paid by the Bruins' absentee owner Jeremy "Mr. Burns" Jacobs for whatever he does (nobody is really sure what Cam is in charge of day-to-day). Don seems to be obsessed with players and coaches with ties to New England, meaning that they either are from this area or went to a local D1 hockey school like BC or BU. Hiring Quinn or even Leach who also played for the Providence Bruins and went to Providence College (go Friars!) would be another sign that he lacks the creativity and open mindedness to get the Bruins out of their current middler status in the NHL. The draft is next weekend and free agency begins in a few weeks so I'd love to believe that Sweeney should feel the pressure to drastically improve Boston's roster but unfortunately, today's news means that it'll probably be more of the same for the B's. They are just good enough to make the playoffs (all that the Jacobs family really cares about, their precious playoff crowds) but not in the same area code as the teams in the Stanley Cup Final this season-Colorado and Tampa Bay.
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