Management Let's give Don Sweeney credit for Team Canada win

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I agree with you on the credit/blame part, but you also don't get to be a GM in a tournament like this without having success and being highly respected. That was @BruinDust 's point.

There are a lot (majority?) of Boston fans and media who act like Sweeney is a dolt. The actual people who get paid to evaluate, manage and run the best hockey in the world think he's one of the best and brightest in the game.
Yea he is really bright handing away 1st round picks to take players like Backes whom he signed to a bad contract The man has not won any Cups as a GM and is provably the only GM in hockey without a legit top line Centre on his roster.Heck or anywhere in the system for that matter.There is absolutely nothing coming that should excite Bruins fans either .He piggybacked a core he inherited to where he is right now in my opinion.We will see exactly what he is this trade deadline & off season.The man is out of mulligans, he has to get this right if he does not want the fans next season at the Garden chanting,,FIRE SWEENEY!
 

The year in which you really start to feel the effects of whiffing on all three picks in the first round in one way or another. At least one of those guys should be a main contributor here or have returned a major asset.


I give Sweeney a pass mainly because when you come into an organization generally you don’t want to just change a bunch of stuff right off the bat, it’s usually what causes resentment and when you are wrong you take the blame.

But, it’s also what separates the elite from the serviceable. If he came and said “you get one of your picks and I’m taking two that are actually highly rated and not off the board, so who’s it gonna be I have a draft stage waiting”

Sure he comes off like an asshole, but when he ends up being right you get players that help your team in the long run and you’re not in this mess a decade later with little in the cupboards

It’s a cumulative thing, evaluating these guys, and never just one mistake. My only argument right now for why you don’t replace Sweeney is the question of who replaces him and whether or not you need to get rid of Neely and Sweeney as a package
 
I agree with you on the credit/blame part, but you also don't get to be a GM in a tournament like this without having success and being highly respected. That was @BruinDust 's point.

There are a lot (majority?) of Boston fans and media who act like Sweeney is a dolt. The actual people who get paid to evaluate, manage and run the best hockey in the world think he's one of the best and brightest in the game.
His reputation greatly surpasses his results.

Part of that is likely based on his "education". A large part of that is based on the core he inherited.

He has made a few good trades. A few good contract extensions. Nearly every good move is offset by at least one poor to terrible one.

A greatly overrated GM. Imagine wasting years of Krejci with only one top six winger.

He certainly does well to talk down to fans and media.

I have not liked him one bit for years now. My question is how many other NHL GMs ruin 2015 draft so spectacularly? Only a handful would not be able to ride the core he inherited to playoff contention.

Pastrnak and McAvoy drafting were spectacular. It is difficult to truly evaluate Sweeney as good, or bad as there are many extremes with his transactions. Therefore I settle on average, and will not be missed one bit.

He is not a dolt... but he and others think too highly of himself. It shows.
 
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His reputation greatly surpasses his results.

Part of that is likely based on his "education". A large part of that is based on the core he inherited.

He has made a few good trades. A few good contract extensions. Nearly every good move is offset by at least one poor to terrible one.

A greatly overrated GM. Imagine wasting years of Krejci with only one top six winger.

He certainly does well to talk down to fans and media.

I have not liked him one bit for years now. My question is how many other NHL GMs ruin 2015 draft so spectacularly? Only a handful would not be able to ride the core he inherited to playoff contention.

Pastrnak and McAvoy drafting were spectacular. It is difficult to truly evaluate Sweeney as good, or bad as there are many extremes with his transactions. Therefore I settle on average, and will not be missed one bit.

He is not a dolt... but he and others think too highly of himself. It shows.
Chiarelli drafted Pastrnak
 
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His reputation greatly surpasses his results.

Part of that is likely based on his "education". A large part of that is based on the core he inherited.

He has made a few good trades. A few good contract extensions. Nearly every good move is offset by at least one poor to terrible one.

A greatly overrated GM. Imagine wasting years of Krejci with only one top six winger.

He certainly does well to talk down to fans and media.

I have not liked him one bit for years now. My question is how many other NHL GMs ruin 2015 draft so spectacularly? Only a handful would not be able to ride the core he inherited to playoff contention.

Pastrnak and McAvoy drafting were spectacular. It is difficult to truly evaluate Sweeney as good, or bad as there are many extremes with his transactions. Therefore I settle on average, and will not be missed one bit.

He is not a dolt... but he and others think too highly of himself. It shows.
Very well said, but Pasta was actually drafted the year prior to Sweeney becoming GM. Sweeney like all Gms has his ups and downs, but if you look at the core Sweeney started with and what it is now, its terrible and some incredibly bad asset management along the way. When in 10 years your best forward you've ever drafted, trade for, or signed as FA is Jake Debrusk who's now in Vancouver and after Jake you can draw a name out of hat among all the 3rd and 4th liners he's acquired.
 
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His reputation greatly surpasses his results.

Part of that is likely based on his "education". A large part of that is based on the core he inherited.

He has made a few good trades. A few good contract extensions. Nearly every good move is offset by at least one poor to terrible one.

A greatly overrated GM. Imagine wasting years of Krejci with only one top six winger.

He certainly does well to talk down to fans and media.

I have not liked him one bit for years now. My question is how many other NHL GMs ruin 2015 draft so spectacularly? Only a handful would not be able to ride the core he inherited to playoff contention.

Pastrnak and McAvoy drafting were spectacular. It is difficult to truly evaluate Sweeney as good, or bad as there are many extremes with his transactions. Therefore I settle on average, and will not be missed one bit.

He is not a dolt... but he and others think too highly of himself. It shows.

He gets no credit for Pastrnak. Pastrnak was a Chiarelli pick. McAvoy and Swayman, to a lesser extent, are his only hits. Everything else has been dud after dud after dud after dud. Yeah sure there are some promising prospects we got like Poitras, but we will never know because Donny boy keeps signing more and more veterans to one year contracts to create log jams and prevent new guys from having opportunities. How can you evaluate a prospect's talent if he doesn't play in the NHL for more than one game? Why are we giving time to Mark Kastelic and Oliver Wahlstrom? Guys who are straight up trash and should be AHL bound. Why are we giving minutes to a washed up Jordan Oesterle?

If you keep signing garbage, your team eventually becomes garbage and that's what the Bruins ar right now. If you combine all their overtime results with their regulation results, they are 27-30. Their regulation record is 20-24. This team has no choice now but to blow it up and it is because of the ineptitude of Don Sweeney and Cam Neely.
 
This is like giving Eliot Wolf credit for drafting Drake Maye. The guy had his choice of the greatest hockey talent on the planet, Mike O’Connell could have put that roster together.
 
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I have three friends who are respectively Flyers, Penguins, and Wild fans. All of them think Don Sweeney is a great GM and would be happy to have him. Only here do we hear the ridiculous stuff like "Donny Harvard" and all the weird class warfare bullshit aroud that, and even worse, the "Sweeney doesn't have the balls to do XYZ." It's embarrassing at times.

Sweeney is a great GM. It doesn't necessarily follow that he's still the right GM for the Bruins at this particular point in time. FWIW my guess is he's still here next year whether we like it or not, but whether he should be is debatable. I can see arguments both ways.

As for the 4 Nations, to the extent that the GMs had any influence, I think Don did ok. Got a couple of things right, probably a couple of areas though where the roster could perhaps have been better than it was. They won, so you count it a success, but if this little tourney doesn't give Canada some things to further consider before the Olympics, then it'll be an opportunity missed.
 
I have three friends who are respectively Flyers, Penguins, and Wild fans. All of them think Don Sweeney is a great GM and would be happy to have him. Only here do we hear the ridiculous stuff like "Donny Harvard" and all the weird class warfare bullshit aroud that, and even worse, the "Sweeney doesn't have the balls to do XYZ." It's embarrassing at times.
I don’t think he’s Great. I think a lot of out town fans sees the bruins recent success and gives that credit to Sweeney but the team he took over he’s road the coattails on, until now. let’s see where he goes from here. But you
Let your flyers and Pens friends know that for this years first he’s theirs. Your Minny friend Buium or take a hike. Hell if he thinks he’s great giving a Buick would be a no-brainer for him, and it Seems fair we got a 2nd for PC and all he did was win a cup and built the team, the Great Don Sweeney took over
 

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