With extension official, Bruins’ Sweeney being given second chance at worst mistake

I'm not sure what it was that officially saved his job as Bruins general manager for Don Sweeney. Or if it was even in jeopardy, to be honest. What I can say about that is that it never felt like it was in jeopardy.

There was, of course, always the possibility that the Bruins let Sweeney play out the final year of his current contract without an extension. And Bruins president Cam Neely's answer to a question about a potential Sweeney extension last month made you kinda think that was going to happen. But that possibility went out the window Tuesday morning with Sweeney signed to a two-year extension through the 2027-28 season.

But even with half as much belief as he was given on his last extension (his 2022 extension was a four-year one compared to a two-year one this time around), the Bruins are going to give Sweeney a second chance at what has loomed as his greatest mistake in his decade on the job in Boston.

By now, you know where we're going here: 2015. I'm not going to bring anything new to the table here. In fact, nobody is. The Bruins blew it! Biffed it! Slopped it like an AI rendering! With back-to-back-to-back picks, the Bruins drafted one NHL talent. And that guy is now playing in Vancouver. It doesn't get any better when you look at the names drafted after those Boston picks, either. Again, we all know this, and nobody's saying anything new or interesting or even mildly exciting. It is and will always be Sweeney's scarlet letter, and arguably the biggest why the Bruins are in the spot they're in right now and why they haven't raised a Cup banner to the TD Garden rafters since 2011 despite countless strong years and opportunities.

Take Game 7 losses to the Blues in 2019 and Panthers in 2023 out of the equation and the 2015 NHL Draft is without a doubt the most painful loss of the Sweeney-Neely regime. And no amount of attempted rationalization will make anybody feel better about what happened in Sunrise in 2015.

"I think that our drafting and developing, the narrative there is a little off, and it's been going on for quite some time," Neely said last month. "Goes back to 2015 and it was really unfair to Don. By the time Don got hired, it was late May, draft was late June. He wasn't even probably thinking about being a general manager of the Boston Bruins at the time. What Don [Sweeney] did leading up to the draft to make the acquisitions that he did with those picks, to get the three picks, I thought was really good. Then Don was trying to move up in the draft. It didn't work out.

"What we should have done, looking back, we should have taken some time out and said, ‘OK, guys, let's regroup here, we didn't move up, we got three picks in a row’. I think it was very new for everybody. We stood backstage for those three picks. What we should have done was get back to our table and say, ‘OK, let's sit down and say are we okay with our list?’ And, you know, look, these are things you try to learn from other picks throughout after that. I think we've got a number of players, not necessarily playing with the Bruins, but a number of players that we have drafted that have played NHL hockey games. We have traded those picks, we have traded some of the prospects to try and improve our club to win Stanley Cups. So I think the narrative that we're not hitting on all of our draft picks, no one is. You pick in the top 10, you better hit. We haven't done that in quite some time. So have we been perfect? No, can we be better? Yes.”

And that brings us to 2025.

If there's one thing that may have very well saved Sweeney's job (again, this is assuming it was ever in doubt, which remains iffy), it's his 2025 deadline. Rather than doubling down on an obviously flawed roster, Sweeney sold and allowed the Black and Gold to replenish their draft pick cupboard to its strongest point since Sweeney's first year on the job.

Excluding the prospects and young players acquired in the deals, Brandon Carlo netted the Bruins a 2026 first-round pick (top-five protected) from Toronto, sending Brad Marchand to Florida has added a 2027 first-round pick to the arsenal, and trading Charlie Coyle to the Avalanche fetched the Bruins a 2025 second-round pick (originally belonging to the Hurricanes). The Bruins also gained a 2025 second-round pick (originally belonging to the Blues) in the trade that sent Trent Frederic to the Oilers.

Assuming the conditions are met and with Boston still in possession of their own picks, that's five first-round picks and four second-round picks over the next three drafts, all of which are slated to come with Sweeney under contract in Boston. It's the most first-round picks the Bruins have had in a three-year span since Sweeney's first three drafts on the job (six). And it begins with the No. 7 overall pick next month, which is the highest Sweeney pick in his 10 years on the job with the Black and Gold.

"I think the stakes are a little higher, and they should be," Sweeney said earlier this month when discussing the seventh overall pick. "You're trying to evaluate players that are impacting your hockey club. You do find players that trickle down and impact later on as well, but I think you have to expect to hit your pick when you're picking where we are.” 

This is a non-negotiable. While the seventh overall pick can present a mixed bag in terms of NHL impact, the Bruins must get something closer to a Mark Scheifele or Quinn Hughes than a Lias Andersson or Jack Skille.

And with their other picks added to the mix, which project to be something closer to the end of the first round, the Bruins must aim higher than they have with previous late-round picks like Frederic and Johnny Beecher. Both of whom were at their best in third or fourth-line roles for Boston, and were basically acknowledged as such when they were first drafted.

After acknowledging that the game was changing and that their approach itself may have to change this past season, showing that (and with a contract extension in his hand) truly begins with rebuilding the pipeline.

The Bruins are also quick to remind you that they didn't plan on making all of those picks in 2015. It remains to be seen whether or not they plan on making all of those picks they've added to the mix over the next three drafts. But if they don't, they have to be parlayed into something that is of legitimate, long-term value to the organization as was the original plan with the tenure-opening trades that sent Dougie Hamilton to Calgary and Milan Lucic to Los Angeles in 2015. Offer sheets are an obvious weapon at the club's disposal this summer, and even if the Bruins do not go down the offer sheet road, fans can and will stomach parting with a first-round pick if it's another addition similar to the Hampus Lindholm one in 2022. That trade addressed a long-term need on Boston's backend after countless bandaid fixes came up short over multiple seasons that left the B's wanting more.

And much like he had in 2015, Sweeney has a relatively solid foundation of building blocks to try and build around in pursuit of a championship. David Pastrnak is in the prime of his career, the Bruins have strong left and right-side options on their blue line with the aforementioned Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy both signed for the foreseeable future, and Jeremy Swayman should rebound with a normal summer.

But most importantly, Sweeney, deserved or not, has a chance to do the seemingly unthinkable and put 2015 in his rearview mirror with a second chance at the very thing he fumbled a month into his tenure.