You think the letter was bad? This is what he told the Globe.
“I feel it. I hear the boos. I feel all that and they need to know that we’re working hard to right this ship," said Jacobs, who sent a letter to fans following the end of the season.
www.bostonglobe.com
Just hours after the Bruins gave some fans the shirts off their backs following
their 2024-25 finale, Charlie Jacobs sent them a letter letting them know that he shares their disappointment and frustration following a lost season in which the club missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years and that “expectations and accountability are higher than ever.”
Jacobs, the Bruins’ chief executive officer and alternate governor, sat with the Globe for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, touching on several topics, including why he felt the need to pen his letter, his family, the front office, trade deadline day, the draft, and the franchise’s future.
“I’ve read stories, the sleepy owner’s box, or this or that. People need to know, I’m invested in this team, and I care about it and we’re putting our best foot forward and it sucks where we’re at and they need to hear that,” said Jacobs in his corner office in the sparkling Verizon Tower adjacent to TD Garden. “I feel it. I hear the boos. I feel all that and they need to know that we’re working hard to right this ship. We put our chips in for so many years that yeah, our cupboard’s dry. We’re trying to refill it and trying to build another team to go forward.
“This has been an incredibly disappointing year and on a lot of levels it’s been disappointing, and I hear a remarkable amount of frustration, and I feel a remarkable amount of frustration when I watch our team play, especially given the level of, frankly, of winning, quality hockey that we’ve seen for the past decade.”
Jacobs, whose father, Jeremy, bought the Bruins in 1975, said his father, now 85, still watches every game and calls the morning after for a debrief.
“He wants to get feedback, not just from me, but he calls Cam [Neely] if he can’t reach me first and if he can’t reach Cam then he’ll try me back again,” said Jacobs. “He wants an answer right away and then he wants to share what he thinks, too.”
Winning another Stanley Cup under the family’s stewardship is atop Jacobs’s priority list.
“I feel pressure that we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to win,” he said. “There’s nothing more that I would want to do as an executive, but also as a son, to make sure that we get another championship while everyone’s still around to share it.”
Jacobs has been unwavering in his support for Neely, the franchise’s Hall of Fame player turned president, and for general manager Don Sweeney. He said he “absolutely” takes it “very personally” when he hears criticism of the Bruins’ front office.
When it comes to questions about how the power structure works within the franchise pertaining to decision making, Jacobs said there is a collaborative process but there is a protocol.
“I would put it as there has to be a first among equals,” he said. “I sit here as sort of owner’s representative, owner, whatever you wish to call me, but I look at the way the structure is, and I’ve said this before publicly ... I look at it as I’m responsible to make sure the president’s being accountable to the franchise. The general manager is accountable to the president, the head coach is accountable to the general manager. So, the structure, if you look at it, well yes, we are all collaborative and I think frankly that’s a better environment to work in and hopefully at the end of the day it rises the tide for all of us.
While understanding the criticism of some in the fanbase and media, Jacobs pointed to the success of the last decade, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance and the record-setting regular season of 2022-23, when he said, “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around why people call for [Neely and Sweeney’s] heads.”
Jacobs said everyone is on the same page about the approach to the future and he defended
Sweeney’s characterization of a “retool” rather than a rebuild.
He pointed to the roster corps of David Pastrnak (“one of the best wingers in all of hockey”), Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm (“a pair of defensemen a lot of teams would really covet”), and Jeremy Swayman (“a promising young goalie ... may have not had a great year this year and I hope better days are ahead for him who we just signed long term”) as reasons.
“When I think of a rebuild, I think of somebody sort of hitting that proverbial Looney Tunes [TNT plunger], ‘Let’s blow this up and start over.’ And I don’t think we’re there,” said Jacobs. “I think we’re in a place where we need to build, and to use Don’s terms specifically, to retool, to make this a more competitive team for next year and for years to come.”
Similar to Neely, Jacobs pointed to a rough training camp as the root of the unsuccessful campaign that included the early-season
firing of coach Jim Montgomery.
“I feel it was a little bit disorganized. There was a real lack of structure,” Jacobs said. “You see teams to come through, they have a system, they have, perhaps a fallback play, a breakout play, something. And when I watched the Boston Bruins start the season, it was just chaos. There was no organization, and I had a difficult time understanding that given Monty’s record. I don’t know how to answer that other than to say something just changed. And at that point you’ve shopped for the groceries, you’ve made the meal at this point, what are you going to do? Monty didn’t necessarily have any answers. And at that point we had to make a decision.”
Jacobs acknowledged trade deadline week “was a tough one,” as the Bruins bid farewell to some longtime core players,
highlighted by Brad Marchand.
“So, I was at the draft table the day we drafted Brad in 2006 in Vancouver. I won’t forget it,” said Jacobs. “[Former assistant GM] Jim Benning was with me at the time. He said, ‘This kid’s a scrapper.’ Now, he’s a Hall of Fame player. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
Jacobs said the team “made it very clear” to Marchand that they wanted him to remain a Bruin for life.
“He chose otherwise, but we put our best foot forward to make sure he knew that there was an opportunity for him to stay and retire as a Bruin,” said Jacobs, who would not rule out a Marchand return at some point.
Boston acquired six draft picks (one was later flipped) in the five trades it made. The Bruins entered the season with no 2025 second-round picks and acquired two in the Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic trades. They have four (and possibly five) first-round picks in the next three drafts.
“The draft capital, whether it’s deployed on actual picks or perhaps prospects that are in other systems or other NHL teams, whatever it might be, hopefully it manifests itself into a better team going forward,” said Jacobs.
While the Bruins have fallen short with some of their first-rounders, Jacobs pointed out that the team has found selection success in other areas.
For example, the Bruins have drafted eight second-rounders since 2015 and five already have played at least 100 games (Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon, Ryan Lindgren, Jack Studnicka, and Mason Lohrei). Matt Poitras (66 games) is well on his way to making it six.
Jacobs bristles at the notion that the Bruins are a franchise unwilling to offer big contracts. The club has spent. McAvoy, Pastrnak, Swayman, Elias Lindholm, and Nikita Zadorov are examples.
“I feel that people that are hanging on to that narrative haven’t done any homework, not a little, just haven’t done any homework,” said Jacobs, who said the team has “dry powder” to invest in the roster this summer. “We’ve been right there every year. We’re going to be there next year. We’re going to be there this year and next year. I hear the same about pricing, whatever it might be. You pick a category, guess what, we’re 50-50 partners with the Players Association. So, every dollar that we take in, half of it’s going out the door to make sure that we have the best team possible to put on the ice and to help grow this sport that we all love.”
In closing his correspondence to the fans, whom he thanked for their “unwavering support,” Jacobs wrote he was “incredibly proud to be a Bostonian. I take even greater pride in being a Boston Bruin. Together with leadership, we are embarking on an ambitious journey to restore glory to this great franchise.”
Jim McBride can be reached at
[email protected].
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