Monday morning at Warrior Ice Arena, first-year coach Jim Montgomery held his final camp practice with the Boston Bruins ahead of their season opener Wednesday night against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. Following practice, Montgomery, team president Cam Neely, general manager (GM) Don Sweeney and team CEO Charlie Jacobs met with the media ahead of the beginning of the regular season.
There were a lot of topics discussed by the Bruins leaders, from the David Pastrnak contract talks, to who will be the goalie against the Capitals on opening night. One topic that came up was Sweeney and his performance as GM.
Neely Defends His GM
Sweeney enters the 2022-23 season on a new contract after signing a multi-year extension with the Black and Gold in late June. Following the Bruins’ elimination by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs last May, the writing on the wall was a case of not “if”, but “when” they would announce bringing back Sweeney.
Monday, Neely defended his former teammates back in their playing days and it sounded like someone who fully supports his GM’s performance during his while time in charge since 2015.
“The narrative is frustrating to me,’’ said Neely. “I’m tired of talking about 2015. If you look at who the Bruins have drafted and how many NHL games they’ve played, it’s among some of the highest in the league. Every GM in the league makes mistakes. We’ve made some mistakes, but I don’t think it’s and as the narrative says.’’
I agree with Neely that it is tiring talking about the 2015 Entry Draft, but the truth is, the narrative is as big as it says. What would this championship window look like if things had fallen differently? Sweeney set himself up with three consecutive first-round picks at No.’s 13, 14, and 15. Jakub Zboril was selected first, followed by Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn.
Zboril is fighting for a spot on the defense to begin the season, but has just 54 NHL games under his belt, with 42 of those coming in the 56-game shortened 2020-21 season. Last season, he had his season cut short with a knee injury against the Nashville Predators in December. DeBrusk has had the most success of the three picks and will be a vital part of the top six to begin the season and in 321 regular season games, he has 92 goals. Senyshyn was selected last of the three and his career has never gotten off the ground above the American Hockey League (AHL). After requesting a trade last season, Sweeney granted his request sending him to the Ottawa Senators for Josh Brown.
Looking at some of the names that were selected following Senyshyn, tell me if any of these guys would have helped the Bruins the last seven seasons during their championship window. Mathew Barzal went 16th to the New York Islanders, Kyle Connor went 17th to the Winnipeg Jets, Joel Ericsson Ek went 20th to the Minnesota Wild and Travis Konecny went 24th to the Philadelphia Flyers. One or two of those players could very well be the difference between the Bruins making multiple Stanley Cup Final and winning multiple championships. In the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, the Bruins were beaten by the St. Louis Blues in seven games, mainly because they lacked scoring depth at the end of the series.
Neely Missing the Narrative
The 2015 Draft is not the only mistake that has been made, but it’s the biggest mistake to date. Sweeney’s drafting history in general is suspect at best. Yes, he hit big with Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, and Jeremy Swayman, but the biggest needs have not been addressed. The Bruins’ depth chart at center does not look promising when Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci are gone and that could be as early as next season. Going back to the 2015 Draft, that’s where Boston could have their future up the middle with Barzal or even Eriksson Ek. How much different would the Bruins’ future up the middle look with either or both of those players?
It’s hard to build a farm system when you’re trading away your first-round pick, which Sweeney has done multiple times. In some instances, it has worked, while in others, it’s been a failure. There is a reason why The Athletic ranked the Boston pipeline as the worst in the NHL (from ‘Boston Bruins rank No. 32 in NHL Pipeline Rankings for 2022,’ The Athletic, Aug. 22, 2022).
We could get into Sweeney’s free agent signings and his mismanagement of the salary cap in 2021 when he signed five players, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek, Erik Haula, Derek Forbort, and Linus Ullmark. Only Ullmark and Haula had good 2021-22 seasons, but Haula was traded in July to the New Jersey Devils. Foligno was given a two-year, $7.6 million contract with a whopping $3.8 million average annual value (AAV) for a fourth-line forward that had two goals and 13 points in 64 games last season. Sweeney is already trying to cut his losses with Foligno by placing him on waivers Sunday, but he cleared waivers without being claimed Monday afternoon.
Neely defending Sweeney is something that should not come as a surprise, but it appears that Neely is missing the narrative on the 2015 Draft. The Bruins’ outlook beyond 2022-23 would be a totally different outlook if it had gone differently. That is why it continues to come up with the narrative it does. That is also why that the 2015 Draft continues to be a talking point under the current Bruins management and will continue to be until there is change.
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