Don't Ask Me Why But The B's Rewarded GM Don Sweeney With A Multi-Year Contract Extension

 

    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. 

For Some Stupid Reason, The Bruins Decided That Firing Bruce Cassidy Was The Right Thing To Do

 

    Nothing lasts forever in life, especially when you are the head coach of a professional sports team. You are always on borrowed time and in almost every situation, your job will end in one of two ways: either you will get fired or you will retire. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy is a very good hockey coach and a nice guy to boot so today's news that he had been fired with a year and three million dollars left on his contract was disappointing to say the least. Rather than get rid of GM Don Sweeney or President Cam Neely, two guys who you could question way more, the Jacobs family that owns and occasionally pays attention to the B's decided that Cassidy deserved to go after his teams reached the postseason in all six years that he was in charge of the Black and Gold. 

    After a first-round playoff exit in seven games against Carolina last month, you knew that something was bound to change for the B's as they fade further away from Stanley Cup contention with each passing year. Again, they were eliminated over two weeks ago so the lag time for this rash move seems like they had no conviction behind it. You can argue how much the head coach even matters in the NHL but for what it's worth, Cassidy did win the Jack Adams Award in 2020 which is given to the top head coach in the league. This is most likely a case of the best players on the Bruins (Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, etc.) getting tired of hearing Cassidy constantly being critical of them for six years. He is brutally honest with the media which makes you believe that Bruce is likely even more blunt with his players if that's possible. Still, it's hard to argue with his results that included a Presidents' Trophy in 2020 (for the best record in the NHL) and an epic choke job in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals vs. St. Louis. 

    Cassidy is only 57 years old meaning that he will likely be unemployed for a very brief period of time. Still, he has young kids and a family so uprooting them cannot be a fun thing to think about. If he wants to take a break from the daily grind of coaching, he would be a welcome addition to ESPN, TNT or the NHL Network's TV coverage. In 399 regular season games with Boston, Cassidy was 245-108-46 with a respectable 36-37 record in the postseason. In his four full seasons here (excluding when he took over mid-season in 2017 and the Covid shortened 2020-21 campaign), his teams all earned 100+ points even when there were only 70 games (damn you pandemic!) in 2019-20. 

    All eyes will be on Sweeney and Neely to see who they choose to succeed Cassidy. It'll be tough to top him and you'll remember that Cassidy quickly made people forget about Claude Julien who nevertheless won the last Cup for the Bruins back in 2011. Will Boston go with an experienced and veteran head coach like Barry Trotz or Peter DeBoer or do they go off the board with an assistant coach, minor league or college head coach that nobody has heard of before? Who knows but with so many injured players heading into the 2022-23 regular season including Marchand, McAvoy and Bergeron (if he decides to come back), this gives us even more reason to not pay much attention to the B's in the near future. 

The Bruins Inked Forward Trent Frederic To A Two-Year Extension With A $1.05 Million Cap Hit

 

    It was a very under-the-radar signing that was sadly buried on a summer Friday afternoon but yesterday, the Bruins signed one of their few promising young forwards to a two-year contract extension. 23-year-old Trent Frederic's new deal will cost the team an annual cap hit of just $1.05 million dollars. That is a relative bargain for a guy that is a former first-round draft pick (29th overall in 2016) who made an immediate impact in his first full NHL season (2021) before tailing off near the end of the regular season and being a healthy scratch for all 11 playoff games against the Capitals and Islanders. While it's hard to explain how he didn't appear in a single postseason contest against two big and tough teams like Washington and New York, I am sure that Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy sat Frederic for a specific reason(s). 

In 42 games last season with the black and gold, Frederic had four goals and an assist along with 65 penalty minutes. As you can guess from those modest offensive numbers, he probably will never be on Boston's top line but nevertheless, he can definitely play a key role as many of the Bruins older veteran forwards eventually start to phase out from the club. Freddy isn't afraid of anyone in the NHL: the picture above shows him chirping with Devils defenseman P.K. Subban while he also famously went after Caps superstar Alex Ovechkin. The key for Frederic like many other young players in the league that play with a physical edge is to not cross the line too often. He had a tendency to take some dumb penalties when other teams started to take notice of him and go after the University of Wisconsin product both physically and verbally. 

    The NHL is not nearly as physical as it once was and likewise, the Bruins who were always known for their toughness these days have very few guys that you would consider legitimate tough guys. Trent could be different and a bit of a throwback (that B's fans already have started to fall in love with) because he has the stick skills of a first-round draft pick but the grinding style of a third or fourth-line forward that's a fringe player in the league. I'm certainly not anointing him the next Cam Neely or anything but there is no reason why his ceiling couldn't be something like a Milan Lucic: a big (6-foot-2, 230 pounds), left shot forward that is not afraid to drop the gloves or go to the net to knock in loose pucks. He seems very likable and a good teammate so with some more seasoning at the highest level, hopefully he continues to take the next steps to embrace a much bigger role on the Bruins. 

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli Extended 4 More Years, Through 2017-2018

It was talked about plenty of times last season as the Bruins advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in three years but it's worth saying again: the B's have become one of the model franchises in the NHL after many dark years earlier this decade. Today, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli received a four-year contract extension through 2017-2018 (he had one more year left on his current deal).

When Boston repeatedly folded in the playoffs, it was easy to make fun of Chiarelli and his well-established penchant to hand out contracts to mediocre players left and right. Now, the story is completely different. He's proven to be a winner and the Bruins have made the playoffs the last six seasons in a row including at least one series win in four of the last five years.

During the regular season, Chiarelli's roster has gone 291-187-62 (.596 winning percentage) with five 90-point seasons and three 100-point seasons. Boston has made the postseason in six of his seven seasons on the job and they've gone 50-35 during that span. In 2011, he became only the third Bruins GM to win a Cup joining legends Art Ross (1929, 1939, 1941) and Milt Schmidt (1970 and 1972).

A product of Harvard University and established player on the Crimson's hockey team, Chiarelli is a very smart guy that even has a law degree. If you're a Bruins fan, you have to like the position that the team is in going into the 2013-2014 regular season (which starts October 3). There is stability on the ice with Tuukka Rask, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Co. while Claude Julien has become one of the top head coaches in the NHL and the same could be said for Chiarelli and president Cam Neely.

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