Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney will face more than his fair share of pressure this summer after his team’s disastrous 2024-25 NHL season.
The Bruins entered the season picked as one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference side of the playoff bracket. Instead, the Bruins are left wondering what went wrong. While we could spend the entire day discussing the issues plaguing Boston, my colleague Scott Roche summed it up in this post.
So, that brings us to Don Sweeney. The biggest question is whether Sweeney is still the right person for the GM role in Boston. There’s no doubt he’s been successful since taking over in 2015.
Sweeney, however, hasn’t brought a championship to Boston. That’s something that GMs are typically measured by. Win a Cup, and you’re a legend. No Cup, you get sent to the heap with everyone else.
I will give Sweeney credit. He’s managed to keep the Bruins afloat for about a decade. That’s not an easy thing to do in today’s NHL. He’s navigated the salary cap while drafting players and building a perennial contender.
But, in my estimation, Sweeney has run out of runway. He’ll be under intense pressure this summer to transform the Boston Bruins back into a contending club. That means restocking the lineup in support of presumptive captain David Pastrnak.
The Bruins have the right core pieces in place. But it remains to be seen if Sweeney can fill in the gaps with the right pieces.
Boston Bruins may keep Don Sweeney on the hot seat
It might sound ludicrous to think that Don Sweeney is on the hot seat, but that’s the reality facing the long-time NHL player and executive. He’ll need to show his trade deadline fire sale was part of a broader plan to bring the Boston Bruins back to relevance.
Regardless of what he ultimately does, it’s fair to say that Sweeney will be on the hot seat all season long. Depending on how things go in their search for a new coach, and what he can do in the free agency market, Sweeney could be skating on very thin ice come the fall.
Then, there’s the NHL draft. It’s still a little too soon to speculate. But the Bruins hold the fifth overall pick at this point. That spot gives the Bruins a shot at a generation player, while still turning things around and being competitive next season.
That’s three very complicated objectives Sweeney will have to ace this summer. Yes, it’s doable. But it will require a combination of experience, know-how, and luck. If he aces all three, Sweeney will go down as a genius.
If he doesn’t, the Bruins could be shopping for a new GM sooner rather than later. It won’t happen this summer, but a disastrous start to next season may lead team management to think about the dreaded “R” word, meaning a new GM will be needed for that job.
