Boston Bruins: How much good favour does Don Sweeney hold?

You’d have to imagine Boston Bruins General Manager, Don Sweeney holds at least a little favour with other bosses around the league.

Obviously, General Managers are typically out for themselves and the benefit of their respective teams, but over his time with the Boston Bruins, you’d have to imagine Don Sweeney has built some relationships and established some connections that make trading with certain teams easier than others.

You can make a relatively safe assumption that he holds some good favour with at least three General Managers that he’s completed multiple transactions with. Namely the Florida Panthers’ Dale Tallon, the New Jersey Devils’ Ray Shero and New York Rangers’ Jeff Gorton.

There’s also a further nine General Managers, albeit one that is currently employed by a team with no players, Ron Francis who was recently named GM of the, as yet, unnamed Seattle NHL team that he has had trade dealings with.

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There has likely been talk between the Boston Bruins and plenty, if not all of the other teams in the league; but it’s a group of 12 that we feel Don Sweeney likely would have the easiest dealings with.

Looking at the three General Managers he’s been back to multiple times; you have to wonder whether there would be interest in any sort of trade dealing right now.

Safe bet, given their status as a fellow Atlantic Division team, is that the Florida Panthers will be unlikely to instigate any sort of deal that gives true value back to the Boston Bruins. Don Sweeney would really have to get creative to make any sorts of advances that intrigue Dale Tallon.

With the Panthers bringing on-board Sergei Bobrovsky, among others; they seem committed to a real push at making the play-offs this year. It’s highly unlikely any sort of dealing in futures or players that have significant impact upon their cap space would be happening things.

Jeff Gorton, with his recent contract extension he gifted to Jacob Trouba and the big summer signing of Artemi Panarin, rapidly jumped from being a General Manager of a team committed to rebuilding to be the General Manager of a team with limited cap space and a few bad contracts still left to get rid of.

Perhaps the only hope for calling in a favour lies with Ray Shero. You’d have to assume he knows the position of power he holds and if Don Sweeney came calling, Shero would no doubt be seeking more than just a player that was signed to a bad deal by the Boston Bruins. You can all but guarantee he’d be seeking draft picks or prospects to sweeten any such deal.

As General Manager of the Year, we expect Don Sweeney to pull off some magic and rescue the Boston Bruins current cap situation. Whether he holds that much favour around the league, we shall soon find out.

If he can pull off some sort of deal to make signing Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo a bit easier on the Boston Bruins, it’s likely because he put time and attention into building positive relationships with his fellow General Managers.