After a few days of player, coach, and management press availabilities, Boston Bruins president Cam Neely took the podium today to speak with the media and updated the status of some high-level employees. Neely admitted that he and Bruins ownership were disappointed in how the team bowed out of the first round, and that changes may be on the horizon.
On general manager Don Sweeney, who does not yet have a contract for next season, Neely indicated that they would sit down and work out a deal in the coming days. He praised the work that Sweeney did at the deadline to give the Bruins a better chance and expects to reach an extension without issue. Sweeney said earlier this week that he expected a resolution in “short order” suggesting that he too thinks there won’t be an issue with working out a new contract.
With regards to head coach Bruce Cassidy, Neely was a little more uncertain. He told reporters that while he believes Cassidy is an excellent coach, there is a need for change in terms of how the team plays. He suggested that it will ultimately be Sweeney’s decision whether to bring Cassidy back next season, and that the two hadn’t really spoken about it to this point because of Sweeney’s own uncertain future throughout the year.
Cassidy, 56, has one year remaining on his current contract and is owed $3MM next season. He took over as head coach of the Bruins during the 2016-17 season and has led them to plenty of success, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019, which they ultimately lost to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. It’s likely the results since then that have put some doubt into Neely’s mind, especially this year’s game seven performance that he mentioned specifically several times.
There is of course a long list of highly qualified coaching candidates available, including names like Barry Trotz, Pete DeBoer, Paul Maurice, Mike Babcock, Jeff Blashill, Joel Quenneville, Claude Julien, John Tortorella, and many more. While there is no indication that the Bruins will make a change just yet, that deep pool of candidates likely has several executives around the league at least considering their options.
Watch them resign Sweeney,fire Bruce…and when they figure out WHO traded for Hampus,it will be THEN when they realize that they made the wrong choice on who to keep.
Guessing Julien won’t be considered. No thanks to many of those others as well. I still believe in Cassidy as a coach but their inability to close out periods the whole season was concerning. The team is just not as talented as other teams in the east
I’m not sure how it’s on Cassidy when Sweeney has missed on so many draft picks and free agent signings.
The old boys network at work, and the wrong choice IMO. Cassidy is an excellent coach and Sweeney…
Part of it is absolutely on Cassidy. He gets outcoached in the playoffs every season. He’s teams lose focus late in periods. He won’t give young forwards a chance & relies too heavily on veterans. Nosek & Foligno were both poor in the playoffs. Cassidy could’ve & probably should’ve inserted two of McLaughlin, Steen & Studnicka into the lineup. They couldn’t have done any worse, but Cassidy continued to role out his non-existent veterans. This team needs an infusion of youth up front & if Cassidy won’t do it, then move on to someone who will
Freddy played and he was benched, and honestly they played better with Wags and Foligno than having Freddy out there. I haven’t seen Cassidy get out coached, in fact I’ve seen the opposite, in almost every series they’re the less talented team, they had no business being in the Canes series where again due to Sweeney’s lousy roster management they had 3 lines offer nothing offensive and that was from lack of talent, not anything Cassidy did.
I feel like Julien was the coach who wouldn’t trust the young players so they brought Cassidy up from Providence because he was closer to the younger players but then Sweeney’s drafts just dried up the pipeline.
Can’t figure out why they would let Cassidy go. Team is getting old Boston needs more speed. Cassidy doesn’t draft or sign UFAs.
This team is not getting old…. just Bergy and Marchand to a lesser extent. Core Defense and Goalies are young..
Sweeney also signed older players for their “experience” which only took development time away at the NHL level for guys like Studnicka, Frederic
Also disappointed we didn’t see Lohrei make his NHL debut in the playoffs a la Torey Krug style… never forget.
Would love to see contributions from younger players and an improved farm system instead of wasting $3-$4 mil on production you could’ve gotten from entry level players if you had just drafted and developed better.
There were plenty of times this season where Cassidy could’ve played Studnicka in a top 6 role, but instead chose to move Nosek up to the second line. Cassidy doesn’t like to play young forwards. The lack of time for young forwards is on both Sweeney & Cassidy.
Umm, in order to play Lohrei in the playoffs – wouldn’t you know he’d have to have a contract? He’s not even sure he wants to leave college yet!!
You’re absolutely right. I just assumed this to be common sense and I don’t think there’s a rule preventing teams from signing players to ELCs during the playoffs. I could be wrong though.
They will sign Toxic Babcock and totally destroy their organization.
Whoever get fired in the management goes to leafs please
keep bruce bam bam
sweeney should of been gone after letting krug go for that contract he got in stlouis.
Is Studnicka the hockey version of Jarrett Stidham…?
Jack has shown nothing at the nhl level that should warrant him playing in the playoffs. Bottom line is Sweeney signed terrible depth guys(sans haula) and none of the young guys were good enough to take there spots
Cassidy is an excellent coach. Maybe Neely needs to be replaced.
Maybe Charlie can make a decision & dump the problem it’s Neely
Reilly and Forbort at $3 each. Coyle at $5.25. Foligno over $2. Grz at almost $4 and he was a healthy scratch… it’s literally throwing away the savings made on the Bergy, Marchy, Pasta deals.
Hall at $6? Fine. Lindholm at $6.5? Okay I guess, but spending about $10 mil on guys who have spent time on the bench as healthy scratches at some point throughout the season is a bad look plus another $5+ mil on Coyle who is more realistically a 3rd liner on a championship team is an overpay.
To me, that just shows how little confidence the org has in their younger players that they need to go out and sign/overpay for these players. Look at the Canes? They have a lot of homegrown talent on defense and offense.
Draft and develop. Save your higher draft picks unless you won’t have room for them in 3 years like the lightning. The Bruins will need a new top line as early as next year. In truth, Bergeron probably should be the 2C on a championship team next year.
Sweeney’s cap management, asset management, and draft/develop record should have him gone. The only players I can think of that’s been good has been McAvoy and Swayman. The forward group needs a shot in the arm pronto.
sweeney should of been gone long time ago friggin moor at 2.75m over 5 years!!!! thank you ducks for taking him
your right his drafts are brutal. beecher gives me freddy vibes but heres hoping lysell is legit
What an awful decision if Sweeney stays and Cassidy is let go. Cassidy is one of the best coaches in the NHL and the bruins have exceeded expectations with him at the helm. Sweeney is a bum who can’t draft and makes terrible player decisions. Let him go and let Cassidy become GM/coach