Sports GMs are an easy punching bag for all fanbases. When it comes to Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney, it's been a nearly 10-year run of being a punching bag for fans. Whether it's drafting, trading or free agent signings, the former Boston defenseman usually hears it from the passionate fanbase.
When it comes to the 2025 trade deadline, Sweeney did what was needed, he shook up his roster for not only the rest of the season, but the future. He traded some key players, some franchise icons and some players who have only known the Black and Gold throughout their NHL career to this point. It needed to be done.
Two weeks ago, Sweeney said that Boston was going to take a "Cautious approach" at the deadline and the way the team came out of the 4 Nations Face-Off, he was a little more aggressive than he likely wanted to be. He traded Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers, Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Charlie Coyle to the Colorado Avalanche. It's somewhat eye-opening that two of the Black and Gold's biggest division rivals collected key players in Marchand and Carlo.
After a very busy trade deadline, Sweeney met with the media and offered some interesting quotes and failed to accept the obvious, which only angered the fanbase more with him (if that's possible) going forward.
Don Sweeney's latest comments prove he's tone deaf with the fanbase
After pushing back his media session nearly two hours, Sweeney met with the media and offered some answers to some questions, but it felt like every time he offered an answer, he upset the fanbase more.
“We didn’t burn it down,'' said Sweeney. "We have a lot of guys.”
So who's going to tell him? Yeah, this was as close to a "burn down" as he could have had. They do have a lot of guys, but they don't have many of "those guys" needed to make a deep postseason run. You don't trade your captain, shutdown defenseman and top-six forward and try to sell it to the fanbase that you didn't burn it down.
As for sending Marchand, Carlo and Coyle to teams that are aiming for a deep postseason run this spring, Sweeney said that they are going to teams they are jealous of, which is a comment of some kind.
“They’re going to teams that we are jealous of,” Sweeney said. “We’ve been in the same situation with those teams that they’re loading up and had we done our jobs, if I had done my job appropriately, starting there, we would be adding like we have in 10 previous years.”
Sure, he can be jealous of those teams, but truth be told, the position the Bruins are in is because of him. Those teams didn't shell out bad contracts last season to Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, who it feels like has spent more time in the penalty box this season than on the ice. Another reason why they are in the position they are in now is because of poor drafting and development. The writing has been on the wall since the 2015 Entry Draft, Sweeney's first in charge in Boston.
During his whole media session on Friday, the fact that Sweeney did not call it like it is, a teardown and one that was necessary. I mean, any Boston Bruins fans who have been following know what it was and whether or not they agreed with what happened had to be prepared for the possibility of the day that the organization had on Friday.
Factor in Sweeney's comments and inability to call it like it is will only frustrate the fanbase even more and put more pressure on him in the coming months. If he wonders why there are sometimes "Fire Sweeney" chants at the TD Garden, he'll just need to look back at Friday and some comments he made that ruffled an already frustrated fanbase.