Don Sweeney is heading into his second NHL Entry Draft as a general manager. His first one certainly turned a few heads. He traded away Milan Lucic to Los Angeles, a move that didn’t seem to anger many Boston fans. Then he moved Dougie Hamilton and suddenly the media were on him like a pack of rabid, ravenous wolves. The fans soon followed.
It’s still too early to give Sweeney a final grade for his first Entry Draft. Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zachary Senyshyn haven’t developed enough to be NHL ready just yet. But he is still facing negative marks for Hamilton and the surrendering of draft picks for Lee Stempniak and John-Michael Liles. Still, the fans and the media are hoping that Sweeney doesn’t repeat the perceived mistakes of last year.
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Sweeney knows his job. He’s got to get the Bruins back in the playoff hunt, and he needs to get them there yesterday.
“My job is to build the best hockey team that I can possibly build for this year and going forward, having an opportunity to win each and every year,” said Sweeney on Boston Bruins.com. Sweeney has taken a lot of flak from the Boston media and the fans over the choices the team made last year. Still, the sophomore GM is do what he believes is in the best interests of the organization.
“We have to be very cognizant if we have the opportunity to improve our team and be that – as I described – competitive team that’s in position to be in the playoff race and win.
“That’s the only goal we have – that’s it.”
Don Sweeney has yet to give up on finding a way to sign Loui Eriksson. While the odds of that happening are dwindling, Sweeney still hopes to bridge the gap in a final push before free agency starts on July 1.
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“We’ll take one more stab at it to see if he thinks the internal landscape is as green as we think it is, as opposed to what the outside may look like,” said Sweeney of keeping Eriksson in the spoked ‘B’.
“Obviously he’s on the cusp of maybe exploring things and may see otherwise. I told you all along that my position was we really value Loui and what he brings to the table and we’d like to find a fit, but it may not happen.”
Sweeney showed his hand a bit while discussing the Bruins depth in goaltending. He believes that Malcolm Subban might be ready to be the number-two man in Boston next season. That’s why he’s letting Jonas Gustavsson go out to free agency. At this point, Bruins fans should be surprised if Boston actually keeps a backup goaltender for more than a season.
The Bruins are letting Zach Trotman go into free agency as well. Now, that’s a bit of a surprise. He was part of the youth movement, and seemed to be a not terrible choice for a bottom-pair defensemen. That option disappeared when the Bruins gave lottery ticket contracts to Adam McQuaid and Kevan Miller.
Sweeney’s not stupid. He knows what he has to do. Hopefully the Bruins front office has given him the tools to make solid decisions for the franchise moving forward when the draft commences tomorrow night in Buffalo.