New contract in hand, Don Sweeney now must make good on draft haul he’s piled up for Bruins
Boston currently holds five first-round picks and four second-round picks over the next three drafts.
COMMENTARY
A new two-year contract extension does not necessarily represent a long leash for Bruins GM Don Sweeney.
More than anything — and as Cam Neely noted to The Boston Globe earlier this week — putting pen to paper on a new deal for his GM assagued some of the optics of an executive pitching a fruitful future in Boston to a new head coach … while operating on an expiring deal.
“For me, it was like, ‘OK, if I’m comfortable with his plan moving forward, it can’t just be for one year, in my opinion,’” Neely told the Globe’s Jim McBride. “And then obviously if Don’s going through a coaching search, it’s something where it would be a little bit short-sighted if he’s looking for a coach that he’s looking to hire for any length of time and he’s going into the last year of his deal, I certainly didn’t think that would make any sense whatsoever if I was comfortable in the direction that he wanted to take the franchise.”
Still, there is plenty of work to be done by Sweeney and Co. in terms of steering this franchise in the right direction moving forward. Because if Boston shows little signs of righting the ship in 2025-26 following a disastrous season, it remains to be seen if Sweeney will be the man tasked with making another lottery pick in 2026.
For now, however, the Bruins’ top brass is entrusting Sweeney with penning a new chapter of the Bruins with the last vestiges of that 2011 Stanley Cup squad now either retired or skating in different sweaters.
The first step involves untangling the mess that turned Boston from a perennial contender into a cellar-dweller in record time.
There were several factors that played into the Bruins’ plummet into the fifth-worst record in the league in 2024-25: untimely injuries, a rudderless showing behind the bench from Jim Montgomery, and severe regression from several lineup regulars all loomed large.
But Sweeney and his staff also oversaw a team that has been operating on borrowed time for years given the dearth of homegrown NHL talent within the team’s pipeline over the years — with additional free-agent misfirings eventually creating a defective roster short on speed, skill, and scoring punch.
Yet for as ugly as those games were at TD Garden from mid-March onward, Sweeney’s new deal shouldn’t necessarily come as much of a surprise.
Any Bruins fan clamoring for Sweeney to be let go following a season gone awry should have known that Boston wasn’t moving on from the GM who they entrusted to gut the roster at the NHL trade deadline.
And amid the valid criticism regarding Sweeney’s draft record and last offseason’s missteps, Sweeney has given Boston a significant head start on its ongoing retool via the team’s fire sale.
In a league where longtime contenders are often reluctant to wave the white flag — often until it’s far too late — Sweeney opted to tear the roster down to the studs in hopes of greater returns in the future.
Captain Brad Marchand was sent to Florida, while other lineup regulars in Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, and Justin Brazeau were also dealt within a span of a few days.
But in a buyer’s market, Sweeney took advantage by restocking Boston’s barren cupboard of prospects and draft capital.
The entire haul once the deadline dealing was complete?
- 2025 second-round pick (via Edmonton)
- 2025 second-round pick (via Colorado)
- 2025 fourth-round pick (Toronto)
- 2026 conditional first-round pick (Toronto – top-5 protected)
- 2026 sixth-round pick (Minnesota)
- 2027/2028 first-round pick (Florida)
- F Casey Mittelstadt
- F Fraser Minten
- F Will Zellers
- F Jakub Lauko
- F Marat Khusnutdinov
- D Max Wanner
- D Daniil Misyul
As a result of the Panthers’ conditional second-round pick switching to a 2027 or 2028 first after Marchand and Florida advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston currently holds five first-round picks and four second-round picks over the next three drafts.
Add in Boston’s own first-round pick this year (No. 7 overall), and Sweeney and Co. have a prime opportunity to refill Boston’s prospect pool and add young, cost-controlled talent that could supplement a core led by David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy in the next few years.
That endeavor might be the largest determinant in whether or not Sweeney is still calling the shots in the next few years.
Sweeney has shown himself to be adept at making bold trades (Hampus Lindholm, Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi) and unearthing value in free agency likely Morgan Geekie.
A timely offer sheet or signing a potent winger like Nikolaj Ehlers or Brock Boeser would give Boston a lift in 2025-26 and beyond.
But if the Bruins are going to be build a sustainable contender for the long haul, Sweeney and his staff need to make hit on these picks over the next few years and inject impact players through the system.
“I think the stakes are a little higher, and they should be,” Sweeney said earlier this month about the seventh overall pick. “You’re trying to evaluate players that are impacting your hockey club. You do find players that trickle down and impact later on as well, but I think you have to expect to hit your pick when you’re picking where we are.”
Sweeney made the difficult decision to rip off the Band-Aid in March.
Whether or not the Bruins can stop hemorrhaging draft picks and young talent is another challenge entirely.
It’s an aspect of team-building that Sweeney needs to correct on his ledger if both he — and the Bruins — want to remain relevant in this market.
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