The Athletic - Boston NHL front-office confidence rankings, 2023

[PlayMakers]

Bergeron turned 30 in 2015 and Krejci in 2016 so they absolutely needed to be drafting
Centers.

To be fair, Sweeney has drafted a lot of centers: JFK, Frederic, Studnicka, Shen, Hall, Beecher, Duran, Gasseau, Harrison, Locmelis, Poitras, Pelosi, Hendrickson. (That's not counting the no names like Cam Hughes, Cedric Pare, Jack Becker...)

It's hard to draft and develop a first line center when you're competing for Cups and you rarely pick in the first round, let alone the top10.

*Fwiw, he did trade for a center that was a former top10 pick in 2015, in Pavel Zacha.

 

[NeelyDan]

That's probably the best way of looking at it. Take the emotion out, take personal preferences and biases out. Rank the GM's based on their success, both regular season and post-season. Who's won Cups? Short of that, who's got the most post-season wins in the last 5 years? Short of that, who's got the most regular season wins the last 5 years? Do the math and there's your answer.

I don't have the numbers, but I'd be surprised if Sweeney isn't in the top10 based on that criteria.

Problem with that is it's only a rearview look

regardless - to say the guy is 24th is asinine

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

But not the number 1 priority at that time.

They had drafted centers in 2014 (Ryan Donato, 2nd round), 2015 (JK Karlsson, 2nd round), 2016 (Trent Frederic, 1st round), 2017 (Jack Studnicka, 2nd round). Still had hope for Spooner at that time also.

Yep, was think 2017 still.

Bergeron turned 30 in 2015 and Krejci in 2016 so they absolutely needed to be drafting
Centers.

They did draft centers, but defensemen were a bigger need.

Maybe they should have drafted a center instead of McAvoy in 2016.

 

[Over the volcano]

To be fair, Sweeney has drafted a lot of centers: JFK, Frederic, Studnicka, Shen, Hall, Beecher, Duran, Gasseau, Harrison, Locmelis, Poitras, Pelosi, Hendrickson. (That's not counting the no names like Cam Hughes, Cedric Pare, Jack Becker...)

It's hard to draft and develop a first line center when you're competing for Cups and you rarely pick in the first round, let alone the top10.

*Fwiw, he did trade for a center that was a former top10 pick in 2015, in Pavel Zacha.

Snaked Merkulov and Farinacci too

 

[Kegs]

27th last year. 19th this year? Summer hockey articles be like ….

 

[UncleRico]

To me, that's not even the point.

You don't draft for need in the NHL. That's a football thing when you're picking guys 3-6 years older than you do in hockey. Players you expect to come in and contribute right away.

"Need" should only ever factor in to an NHL draft if you have two players on your board ranked identical and you use it as a tie-breaker. And even then it's an overall snapshot of the current prospect pool that you base your assessment on - not the NHL roster.

Well in this specific situation need and best player available were the same.

 

[quietbruinfan]

I want Sweeney, and especially Neely, fired for horrible drafting, poor in league free agents, and general stupidity. However, I fully and honestly believe this is a tank year. Therefore, ironically, Sweneely gets a pass from me for this horrible summer.

 

[GordonHowe]

I've not held back on voicing my displeasure of DS during most of his tenure as GM of the Bs. Last couple summers, though, I think he has done a great job with what he has had to work with.

Past couple drafts, although he didn't have any high picks, I think he has been on-point. Seems like the organization has gotten better in that regard. His deadline trades last season, while costly, were awesome. Put the Bs in the position of being the favorite to win the Cup. The team he put together before the playoffs set all-time records. Ignoring the Matthew Mitchell fiasco, I'd give DS an A+ for his performance last season.

Can't have been easy for DS to deal with the Bergy/Krejci situation. Will they play/won't they play two years in a row. Worked out in his favor last season with those sweet contracts for two top Cs. Now will pay the price with them gone.

Looking at his drafting, signings, trades, etc, I feel like DS has learned from his past mistakes as GM and is doing the best he can while still paying the price to some extent for some those past mistakes. I have all the respect in the world for him going all-in last season. Didn't work out. Not even remotely his fault. He's handcuffed this season, so not expecting much from the team in terms of competing for a Cup, but that's fine since that was a given after going all-in last season.

Considering the cap constraints and retirement of Bergy and Krejci I feel like DS has still put together a team that should be fun to watch and have a good shot at making it into the playoffs. Seems like he deserves a pretty high grade for what he has done recently in his time as GM.

Agree 100%, however harsh my criticism has been in the past.

Thanks for posting. Saved me the trip.

 

[Secord]

Problem with that is it's only a rearview look

regardless - to say the guy is 24th is asinine

And this, from no less than Athletic subscribers, la crème de la crème.


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[JOKER 192]

Love that they were 27th last year!

of course you do.

 

[JOKER 192]

To be fair, Sweeney has drafted a lot of centers: JFK, Frederic, Studnicka, Shen, Hall, Beecher, Duran, Gasseau, Harrison, Locmelis, Poitras, Pelosi, Hendrickson. (That's not counting the no names like Cam Hughes, Cedric Pare, Jack Becker...)

It's hard to draft and develop a first line center when you're competing for Cups and you rarely pick in the first round, let alone the top10.

*Fwiw, he did trade for a center that was a former top10 pick in 2015, in Pavel Zacha.

speaking of 2015 , it's crazy that we can't when someone post, posts like this.

 

[Over the volcano]

of course you do.

Yawn

 

[UncleRico]

That's probably the best way of looking at it. Take the emotion out, take personal preferences and biases out. Rank the GM's based on their success, both regular season and post-season. Who's won Cups? Short of that, who's got the most post-season wins in the last 5 years? Short of that, who's got the most regular season wins the last 5 years? Do the math and there's your answer.

I don't have the numbers, but I'd be surprised if Sweeney isn't in the top10 based on that criteria.

So do we not factor the players a GM might have inherited when they became a GM? Not all GM jobs are created equal. Sweeney started off multiple future hall of famers in their prime on his roster and some very good players like krejci and Tuukka also in their prime.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

To be fair, Sweeney has drafted a lot of centers: JFK, Frederic, Studnicka, Shen, Hall, Beecher, Duran, Gasseau, Harrison, Locmelis, Poitras, Pelosi, Hendrickson. (That's not counting the no names like Cam Hughes, Cedric Pare, Jack Becker...)

It's hard to draft and develop a first line center when you're competing for Cups and you rarely pick in the first round, let alone the top10.

*Fwiw, he did trade for a center that was a former top10 pick in 2015, in Pavel Zacha.

My point was in relation to draft choices made in the 2015-2017 time frame when
he had 6 first round picks and couldn't turn any of them into a top six center when his
existing top 2 centers had or were turning 30 over that time span and the organization
witnessed one top six centers career end due to concussions (Savard) and another
have his career impacted significantly (Bergeron).

So opting to pick 3 D in those top 6 was overkill, especially where you had Carlo and McAvoy on the team by the 2017 team and Zboril in the pipeline.

Now I understand he wasn't GM in '07 or '11 but he new what happened there.

 

[PlayMakers]

So do we not factor the players a GM might have inherited when they became a GM? Not all GM jobs are created equal. Sweeney started off multiple future hall of famers in their prime on his roster and some very good players like krejci and Tuukka also in their prime.

Yeah, you can make a small allowance for it, small because it’s a 5 year sample, long enough for contracts to expire. Long enough for two drafts to develop and have an influence on the record.

I also don’t think his inheritance was as rosy as you suggest. He inherited a team that missed the playoffs. Their future hall of famers were already past their prime (Chara was 38, Bergeron/Krejci 30). They had some old holdovers like Seidenberg and Eriksson, but also some great players in their prime like Rask and Marchand and some up and coming furture stars like Pasta and Krug (though Inthink Sweeeney brought in Krug).

If Vegas and Seattle can turn their teams from castaways to contenders in a year or two why not everyone else?

 

[PlayMakers]

My point was in relation to draft choices made in the 2015-2017 time frame when
he had 6 first round picks and couldn't turn any of them into a top six center when his
existing top 2 centers had or were turning 30 over that time span and the organization
witnessed one top six centers career end due to concussions (Savard) and another
have his career impacted significantly (Bergeron).

So opting to pick 3 D in those top 6 was overkill, especially where you had Carlo and McAvoy on the team by the 2017 team and Zboril in the pipeline.

Now I understand he wasn't GM in '07 or '11 but he new what happened there.

He did draft Frederic, Studnicka and JFK in that 3 year window. At the time, Chara was approaching 40 so I dont think it was out of line for him to focus more on D, and draft Carlo, McAcoy and Vaak in 15, 16 and 17. He used the picks right after those D to grab centers, JFK, Studnicka and Frederic.

I guess maybe the Vaal pick was overkill on the D. With Carlo and Max looking strong he could have flipped his priorities to go for a C I. The first and another D in the second. But who knows, maybe they liked Studnicka more than any of the forwards ranked where Vaak was and thought they could get both if they stayed the course.

 

[UncleRico]

Yeah, you can make a small allowance for it, small because it’s a 5 year sample, long enough for contracts to expire. Long enough for two drafts to develop and have an influence on the record.

I also don’t think his inheritance was as rosy as you suggest. He inherited a team that missed the playoffs. Their future hall of famers were already past their prime (Chara was 38, Bergeron/Krejci 30). They had some old holdovers like Seidenberg and Eriksson, but also some great players in their prime like Rask and Marchand and some up and coming furture stars like Pasta and Krug (though Inthink Sweeeney brought in Krug).

If Vegas and Seattle can turn their teams from castaways to contenders in a year or two why not everyone else?

Doesn’t get much better than inheriting bergy(30), krejci (29), Marchand (27), Tuukka (28) hamilton (21), pastrnak (19).

Sure they missed the playoffs and 100% had an extremely weak rest of the roster but they also set the record for most points by a team in history to miss the playoffs. Regardless it was an outstanding foundation to build off of. 3+ hall of famers inherited 30 and under.

GMs dream about walking into those type of situations.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Well in this specific situation need and best player available were the same.

Center was not a need in 2015.

 

[UncleRico]

Center was not a need in 2015.

Organizationally yes it was. They had a 30 year old bergeron and 29 year old krejci. Around that time is when you ideally want to start finding a successor to develop so a few years down the road you don’t run in to having no plan.

It also just so happens that the best player available when they drafted was widely regarded as barzal (well it was between him and connor but they had 3 picks in a row so doesn’t matter)

 

[Over the volcano]

Center was not a need in 2015.

Or the next 5+ years after. But it is now which colors everything looking back

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Organizationally yes it was. They had a 30 year old bergeron and 29 year old krejci. Around that time is when you ideally want to start finding a successor to develop so a few years down the road you don’t run in to having no plan.

It also just so happens that the best player available when they drafted was widely regarded as barzal (well it was between him and connor but they had 3 picks in a row so doesn’t matter)

No one was saying, going into the 2015 draft, that center was a need for the Bruins. Because it wasn't.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't have drafted Barzal. Certainly, in retrospect, taking Senyshyn was a terrible move. Still think the Bruins going up to the podium with 3 Jerseys and not taking time between picks to take offers was one of the dumbest (or most arrogant) moves ever. I would imagine they may have had some pretty good offers after taking Zboril & Debrusk considering who was still available.

 

[Babajingo]

No one was saying, going into the 2015 draft, that center was a need for the Bruins. Because it wasn't.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't have drafted Barzal. Certainly, in retrospect, taking Senyshyn was a terrible move. Still think the Bruins going up to the podium with 3 Jerseys and not taking time between picks to take offers was one of the dumbest (or most arrogant) moves ever. I would imagine they may have had some pretty good offers after taking Zboril & Debrusk considering who was still available.

This has always been my argument about that draft. He was dumb enough to not trade down to get some more picks. I'm sure the Islanders had Seny lined up for their pick
I can't stand Sweeny and Neely. I think they are overrated and unaccountable. But I still think he shouldn't be this low in the rankings. Oh well, they aren't going anywhere anyway.

 

[JOKER 192]

Yawn

Exactly

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

Feel like I'm in the small group of people who like what Sweeney has done.

 

[Over the volcano]

2015? Seriously? Still?