Don Sweeney's haters have grown exponentially over the years, as the Boston Bruins have had success on the ice but have had a terrible record of drafting and developing players. While he did deserve criticism for some of his decisions over the years, it isn't easy to find value when your team is always contending, and you're either picking low in the first round or not at all after trading the draft picks for immediate help.
With not a whole lot of ways to turn at the 2025 trade deadline, the general manager had to make some difficult decisions, which led them to get James Hagens with the seventh-overall pick and acquire some other young players, notably Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Will Zellers.
Bruins' new youth movement
Minten and Khusnutdinov are now second liners on a team that started the season 6-2-0, while Hagens is also starting to catch fire in his rookie season with a two-point game in the 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. His best play was an outstanding give-and-go with another Sweeney draft pick in Matthew Poitras, who has stolen the fourth-line center spot from veteran Sean Kuraly.
What a move 👀 pic.twitter.com/3jQc0DBJu0
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 17, 2026
It isn't just the drafted forwards in Hagens and Poitras and the acquired young forwards in Minten, Khusnutdinov, and JJ Peterka who are leading the Bruins' new youth movement. The backend is being held down by two more of Sweeney's picks, Frederic Brunet and Mason Lohrei, with the former scoring his first-career goal in the comeback win over the Ducks.
That’s a big goal for the Bruins drafting. First goal for a Bruins 5th round pick or later by Don Sweeney to play for the team since Oskar Steen in 2021-22. However first ever player that’s a 5th round pick or later by a defenseman.
— Robert Chalmers (@robbatwo) October 17, 2026
We aren't going to blame Sweeney for not having a ton of success with draft picks in the fifth round or later. Not many general managers do. However, Brunet's emergence as an important piece on the Bruins' blueline is just one more example of how the front office may not be as bad at drafting as fans would have you think.
The problem with a youth movement is that while they all are catching fire at the same time, they could also go through a slump at the same time and put the Bruins in a bad spot. The good news is that they've been picking up the slack for their veterans now for a couple of games, and the hope is that the veterans will do the same for them if they regression comes.
Sweeney still has a long way to go to completely change the narrative on his drafting, but if we are witnessing a new group of players that are going to turn the Bruins into contenders once again, we should all probably lay off the general manager just a little bit.
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