TAKEAWAYS: The Bruins EXTEND General Manager Don Sweeney To Two-Year Deal

TAKEAWAYS: The Bruins EXTEND General Manager Don Sweeney To Two-Year Deal

There is Bruins breaking news. Oh, this is breaking sports news powered by Instant Oil Change on 985, the sports hub. Boston Bruins announcing a 2-year contract extension for Don Sweeney. It will take him through the 2027 28 season. Don Sweeney 2-year contract extension with the Bruins. I thought you were going to say fire to coach. All right, fire the coach. They don’t have a coach, Joe. They’re currently conducting a search for their head coaching job. Uh they they’re not firing a co they don’t need to fire. They they technically don’t have one. Yeah. So, let me get this straight. The Bruins had a general manager going into a lame duck year. A very important lame duck year, if you want to call it that. Yeah. because I would not I would call it a contract year the way we call it a contract year with a player and a GM who certainly needs to prove his worth at this point in time. It would seem like the perfect opportunity to kind of put Don Sweeney on edge and have him bear down like a player does and really give it his best effort over the next year. Instead, they decide to re-up Don Sweeney with two additional years and give him a vote of confidence before this team even goes into the draft. Do I have that straight? Yes. Yes. That’s pathetic. Yeah. I I’ll be honest. I’m not sure what coming off of last off seasonason with the swings and misses in free agency, not getting what the production that you thought you were going to in terms of the big free agent signings, the goalie falling off the cliff, the season going the way that it did, how you wind up with a two-year contract extension when you’re going into the last year of a deal. And I know you don’t want a general manager in the last year of his contract, but in this situation, I I don’t necessarily think it’s deserved. Yeah, you’re searching for the fourth coach in less than two years. So there’s there’s a lot more even on that plate. I don’t think anybody’s cheering this, you know. He calls it pathetic. Um yeah, kind of kind of surprised by it. I am thought they’re going to let this thing ride. Like to your point, you know, prove yourself. Prove yourself before we we give you a deep breath or a cushion or some security. Draft is coming up, then free agency is coming up. There’s a lot of work to be done. Why couldn’t this deal be signed in, let’s say, even if you are going to do it before the year plays out and the season plays out to see the results on the ice? You’re not even going to wait until let’s say the fall. You’re going to wait till September, see how the offseason goes, right? See what kind of moves are made? It goes badly. When’s the last time a GM was uh fired and and paid? Put some pressure not doesn’t happen on your GM the same way you would on a player, right? And and obviously this is the story of sports that executives are often held to a lesser standard than the players they employ on the field, on the ice, etc. Nope. This is an executive who is Cam Neil’s guy and Cam Neely is ownership’s guy and ownership has come out and verbally told you that they believe in in Neie and they believe in Sweeney and you heard that from Charlie Jacobs multiple times a couple of months ago and that’s why I said guys they’re not going to fire this GM. As much as the fan base is in the stands in the building chanting for his firing they’re not going to do it. He’s their guy. But we knew that he was nearing the end of a deal. You would think that he would have to earn the next deal over the next season if he’s keeping his job. The Bruins today said, “Nope, doesn’t matter. Whatever he does, he’s our guy, so we’re keeping him.” And that has to enrage at least uh a significant portion of the fan base because he doesn’t deserve it, right? To be his vision for the next two years. It’s like the same old stuff. He should prove it in a contract year the same way a player has to prove it in a contract year. Yeah. I mean, I know Sweeny just laid last season at the feet of Jim Montgomery and clearly now ownership feels the same way, right? I mean, that’s that’s that’s crazy to me. Yeah. Uh Jim Montgomery who made the playoffs and turned a team around this year. And I’m not telling you he’s some sort of great coach, okay? I don’t think that there was any great loss for the Bruins by firing him. But he’s not a bum. He’s not a guy that you can look at and say, “We stink because of him.” And then you trade away a bunch of players at the deadline, right? Yep. Those two things don’t align and they never have. But it’s convenient. It’s convenient to blame the guy who’s not here anymore that you fired. But we’ve seen a lot of that in this town in recent years where teams just lay the blame on the people they’ve fired. Lay the blame on Montgomery. Lay the blame for the end of the season on Sacko. They’ll replace him now. Lay the blame on Bruce Cassidy prior to this, which is what they have done. That’s that’s easy. That’s a copout. Yep. And now Don Sweeney gets a contract extension. How do you feel about that, Bruins fans? 6177790985. Do you feel confident in the direction of your team? With that being the announcement today, Cam was contemplating things at the time. What he ended up landing on was a two-year extension for Don Sweeney as announced today by the Boston Bruins. The statement from the team reads, “Dawn has navigated a disappointing period for our club with conviction, purpose, and a clear vision toward the future of the Boston Bruins.” This quote is from Cam Neely. He made difficult decisions around the trade deadline with the confidence they will pay dividends as we craft a path back to contention. He is continuing to follow that track with a robust and thorough search for our club’s next head coach while also preparing for the upcoming NHL draft and free agent signing period. I am confident in the plan he has followed these past few months and excited for what’s to come for our team. The expectations in Boston have always been clear. It’s about winning championships, something the Bruins have done one time since 1972. Uh anyway, back to this. They are giving him a vote of confidence with the action of giving him a contract. They are giving him a big vote of confidence in this statement while also mentioning all the things that have not yet happened which includes hiring a head coach, having the draft, and going through the off season in free agency. What would be the harm in seeing how all three of those things are handled by Don Sweeney before deciding on his future? That’s the only question anybody has to answer. What would be the harm in waiting? So, it’s a two-year extension on top of a a year he’s already got. So, it’s a three year deal. Three years left. Yeah. I I just expect the same stuff. Same same approach. The the only thing I can think of for a free agent or two and then just cross your fingers, hope you nail the draft like and hope the goalie is going to be good. Like I don’t know what your like options are. Like Pasta’s here. Mackoy’s here. Well, you you’re not moving any of those guys. Are you Are you getting blown off in the coaching search because candidates are coming in saying, “I’m not I’m not coming in for a lame duck GM that’s going to get blown out in a year.” Good point. And now I have a new GM that wants his guy. Like I like I said a while ago, who attractive who want the gig like you can the previous two and they went to the playoffs. They spent a ton of that press conference that we just played talking about how attractive of a place Boston was. And I just wonder as this search has kind of continued here, are they finding out that Boston is not as attractive as they thought it was? And on top of it, you have a GM that’s a lame duck GM. And again, if I’m a candidate, why am I coming in only to get fired in a year if this guy loses his job? Well, that might be true, but I would say, do you know what would weigh on me in a bigger way than that? If I were a coaching candidate, why is it that in Boston you guys keep firing good coaches and then you blame them on the way out the door? Whether I’m here for a year, two years, three years, everybody who has been here has been kicked to the curb and blamed for all of your problems in building the roster. So that to me would be a far bigger question for a coaching candidate than the future of Don Sweeney. Yeah. You know, and it’s and that’s Don Sweeny’s fault and Cam Neil’s fault and Charlie Jacobs’s fault. It’s all their fault. Those guys run the team. And it’s like the new magic word is collaborative with every damn team in town. like they’re on it now. Hey, it’s collaborative how they’re working for it. Everybody, Red Sox, Patriots, them even even you’re going to hear it now with uh with the NBA and the Celtics and being collaborative because now everything’s on the deck. We all in this together. Collaborative. Not a lot of people probably fired up after this one today. No, I don’t think so.

On Tuesday’s edition of Zolak & Bertrand, the guys reacted to the news that Don Sweeney was extended by the Bruins for two more years. They wondered if this was a “deserved” “vote of confidence.”
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