Bruins GM Don Sweeney made stunning trades with an eye on a quick turnaround. Will it work?

Boston Globe

08-03-2025

And so it was Friday for Carlo and Coyle, and for injured captain
Brad Marchand
, who remained back home,
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Related
:
Advertisement
Along with fellow veteran
Trent Frederic
, wheeled to Edmonton earlier in the past week, GM
Don Sweeney
cleaved off a humongous amount of institutional player memory. Those four wore the Spoked-B in a collective 2,496 games, including 326 in the playoffs.
Now they're gone, each no doubt stunned, although all four landed with a legit Cup contender. That fact has to be a measure of solace, and also a trade week record: most players, one team, dealt to the most teams (Maple Leafs, Oilers, Avalanche, Panthers) with a good chance of hoisting a Cup this June.
'Want to wish each and every one of them well,' Sweeney mused Friday. 'They are going to teams that we are jealous of … .had we done our jobs, if I had done my job appropriately … we would be adding like we have in 10 previous years.'
It was officially time to turn the page, the Bruins close to inking in their first playoff DNQ since Sweeney's first season (2015-16) as GM.
Sweeney also offered the hope of a quick turnaround, pinning his aspirations on the remaining core group (headlined by
Jeremy Swayman
,
Charlie McAvoy
, and
David Pastrnak
), and how the player assets acquired at the deadline fall into place.
Advertisement
Some of those new personnel were on the ice Saturday afternoon, a Day 1 snapshot hard to assess fairly, given the emotional and physical state of everyone in
Joe Sacco's
lineup, as well as his fellow coaches behind the bench. Indeed, it's a business, everyone gets that, but if logic and emotion were so easily harnessed and separated, Mr. Spock never would have been such a intergalactic curiosity (raise one eyebrow here in homage to the ol' West End's spaceman,
Leonard Nimoy
).
Sweeney's theory of a franchise quick pivot will be tested and judged over time. In the immediate, however, he and his staff have to start hitting on the draft picks garnered in recent days.
Keep in mind, those draft picks are 18 years old, and not all of them will be selected in June '25. In fact, one or two or more could be dealt away because this is a team, today, on the outside looking in at the league's elite, very much in need of adding game-ready talent.
The thing is, we all know the draft record under Sweeney's watch has been, shall we say, somewhat spotty. Ditto, too, for free agency, where busts such as
Matt Beleskey
and
David Backes
delivered pennies on their big dollars.
There have been some decent unrestricted free agent hits in market–budget hires
Jaroslav Halak
and
Morgan Geekie
— but overall it has been a monetary minefield. Last July's hires of
Elias Lindholm
and
Nikita Zadorov
(total cash commitment: $84.25 million) now look like the worst, priciest one-day blunder in club history.
Advertisement
Some quick, important math before we go: the cap hits removed from the offloading of Frederic, Marchand, Carlo, and Coyle totaled $17.775 million. The substantial cap hits added back Friday were
Casey
Mittelstadt
(two more years at $5.75 million) and
Henri Jokiharju
(expiring $3.1 million). Per
Assuming Jokiharju is signed for a figure close to $3.1 million, then the rough numbers around the seven aforementioned players leave the Bruins with some $8 ,milliohn more in cap money to bring into the July 1 UFA market. There remains a lot of drilling down on the roster, including inevitable moves in and around the June draft, but that net $8 million in theory represents a top-six forward, possibly a top-pairing defenseman. The number jumps to some $11 million if Jokijharju ends up elsewhere.
The unknown identity of that $8 million-$11 million player is essentially the unascribed 'future considerations' of all the Sweeney moves. Success is never about one player. If so,
Connor
McDavid
and the Oilers would rule the Original 32 domain. But the potential UFA hire to come, or how that added cash factors into a trade or two for more personnel, should be a significant factor in the team Sweeney and team president
Cam
N
eely
put on the ice in October.
Because, all sentiment and emotion aside, everything around that bouncing puck is a business proposition. For Bruins fans who might have thought otherwise, trade week '25 will stand as the 'aha!' moment of a lifetime, just as it did for a generation a half-century ago when
Phil Esposito
saw his Black and Gold suddenly turn into a Blueshirt.
Advertisement
In happier times, Brad Marchand (center) celebrates Charlie Coyle (right) after the Weymouth native scored in a Dec. 23 game.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Geekie brothers
Morgan tells Conor to stay focused
The Geekie Bros. act,
Morgan
and
Conor
, was minus one sibling Saturday afternoon at Amalie Arena.
Morgan, who scored both Bruins' goals in Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., was at his familiar left wing spot while Conor was with AHL Syracuse, prepping for the Crunch's tilt Sunday against Wilkes-Barre Scranton.
Big brother Morgan's advice: stay focused … and enjoy the ride, albeit while dealing with the inherent disappointment that comes with being sent to the minors.
'You kind of feel like you're losing your spot, or losing a step on everybody else,' noted Morgan, an arm injury in early February in part the reason Conor was sent down from the varsity. 'Because there's always that opportunity that someone else can take your job … that's kind of the nature of the business, I think. As you get older, you figure out that things are going to happen as they happen — they'll have a place for him.'
Conor, a first-round pick (Arizona, No. 11) in 2022, is only 20, the same as many college sophomores and even some freshmen. Straight out of junior (Swift Current), he began this season with Tampa Bay and posted 12 points in 49 games before getting hurt. Like his older brother, he has size (6 feet 4 inches, 207 pounds), and is a left-shot center. The Lightning, a solid Cup contender again, have the luxury of roster depth that allows him to incubate.
Advertisement
'To be sent down is not a bad thing at all,' added Morgan, who spent two full seasons at AHL Charlotte before the Hurricanes finally made him a lineup regular. 'Lots of guys, the majority of the guys have come from the AHL. I did it … I got sent down. I remember having a really good weekend and it can help with your confidence, get more touches. Here [at the NHL level], if you're not an established guy, it can be hard to get those touches and get your confidence up … you may not have the leeway or the leash to try things and make plays. Then you're gripping your stick too hard and everything snowballs into a bad storm.'
Conor can feel some solace, too, in that his big, older (26) brother, needed to get to Boston, his third NHL team, for his game finally to flourish at the top level. Morgan entered Saturday's action with a career-high 22 goals and is in line for a hefty pay boost when he bargains for a contract extension as a restricted free agent this spring.
'Its tough going from the NHL to the AHL,' said Morgan, with added reflection on the two leagues. 'Because you get a taste of how good the NHL is and, you realize you've played, say, 50-odd games at this level … and I know he's itching to get back. We haven't talked a lot about it, other than, you know, get your confidence back to where it was when you made the team.'
During his days in Charlotte, noted Morgan, the Checkers were more fortunate than many/most minor league clubs in that they rarely traveled by bus. It was almost always air travel, though via commercial airlines instead of the private charters NHL clubs enjoy today.
'It's the always-hungry league and the never-hungry league, right?' added Morgan, comparing the AHL to the NHL. 'It's the little things and they add up in the NHL. It's a different life up here that we try not to take for granted. Hockey-wise, the [style] of play is a big difference, too; up here it's a little bit cleaner and maybe a little less physical, too, because guys are faster and always in the right spots … things add up.'
A final bit of brotherly advice, Morgan to Conor: savor all of it.
'It's going to be good for him … and he should try not to rush it … obviously, you want to get out of there as fast you can,' he said. 'But try to cherish your time down there. Some of my best memories of pro hockey are in the minors, just because you hang with the guys so much. He'll be fine. He's just got to take it all in stride, and I am sure he will.'
Morgan Geekie (right) has some advice to offer his brother Conor.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Cup aspirations
Lightning strike for the present
Tampa's roster depth, already among the league's elite, added extra layers Wednesday when GM
Julien BriseBois
forked over a load of draft goodies, including a pair of first-rounders, to bring back
Yanni Gourde
, along with the oft-undervalued
Oliver Bjorkstrand
.
Gourde and Bjorkstrand, previously with Seattle, made their way to Tampa Bay via a three-way tango that also included the Red Wings (where BriseBois's former boss in Tampa,
Steve Yzerman
, is the GM). The Kraken netted the pair of first-rounders in 2026 and '27 (top 10 protected) and a second-rounder in '25.
BriseBois's clear message: players play and contend today, draft picks offer promise, but …
'I'd rather have a lineup full of good players than a bank of a lot of draft picks,' he said. 'Ultimately, we're trying to win a lot of hockey games. We're trying to win a lot of hockey [games] this season, next season, every season. We're chasing a championship now, this season, but we're going to be chasing a championship for the foreseeable future.'
If it weren't true, that might be perceived as hubris. However, the Bolts indeed have the goods, and they've had them for some time (Cup wins in 2004, 2020, and '21). They also have one of the game's elite coaches in
Jon Cooper
(last seen in Boston behind the victorious Team Canada 4 Nations Face-Off bench).
Then there's
Nikita Kucherov
,
Victor Hedman
,
Andrei Vasilevskiy
… overall, an embarrassment of riches that likely mean the Kraken will be shopping very late in the first round with those two primo picks — if they don't instead package them up with their own Round 1 picks to acquire bonafide plug-in players.
Sweeney held similar roster gold at the 2018 deadline when he landed swap days' biggest fish, a 33-year-old
Rick Nash
, from the Rangers. The foundation then included
Tuukka Rask
,
Zdeno Chara
, co-elite centers
Patrice Bergeron
/
David Krejci
,
Brad Marchand
, and
David Pastrnak
. But for yet another concussion Nash incurred in only his 11th game, the Bruins might not have needed until the following spring to reach the Cup Final. Right trade. Wrong outcome. Sweeney also surrendered a first-round pick (No. 26) in that deal.
BriseBois's hardest decision, far tougher than surrendering high draft picks, was allowing franchise legend
Steven Stamkos
to walk as a free agent last July. Like Yzerman long ago in Detroit, Stamkos for years was the Tampa franchise, after being selected No. 1 in the 2008 draft.
Stamkos last season delivered 81 points and led the Lightning in playoff goal scoring (five). He was still delivering big, healthy numbers at age 34 and had the brand value of the Mercedes logo. No deal. Come July 1, he departed for a four-year/$32 million deal in Nashville, where, let's say, the good times haven't followed.
It can be a ruthless business, one full of emotion (part of the industry's engine) and rampant with second-guessing among the fan base and especially media. BriseBois, in the moment, is handling the GM role with the best of 'em, alongside
Bill Zito
(Florida),
Jim Nill
(Dallas),
Kelly McCrimmon
(Vegas), and
Kevin Cheveldayoff
(Winnipeg).
Confident goaltender
Binnington handling Blues' turnaround
In their eight games prior to the 4 Nations siesta, the Blues were fading fast (2-5-1) in the West and looked positioned to sell off assets at the deadline. After their win Friday night over the Ducks, they were 7-1-1 in their last eight in the thick of a scrum with Calgary, Vancouver, and Utah for the conference's last wild card seed.
Not hard to see 'the belief in the room,' noted
Jim Montgomery
, the ex-Bruins coach who took over a 9-12-1 club from
Drew Bannister
in November.
It can be a mistake to place too much credit in the goalie, but it looks justified here.
Jordan Binnington
, stellar in backing Canada to the 4 Nations title, went 4-0 in his first four starts, with a .943 save percentage, once back from the tournament. His win Friday made him a perfect 5-0 in five starts.
'I knew Binnington was really good with the puck,' said an admiring
Andrew Raycroft
, the ex-Bruins backstop and now NESN reporter/commentator. 'But he is out of this world with his puckhandling. That's what stood out so much, and made such a difference, for Team Canada.'
Binnington's biggest trophy win also came at the Garden, the night he and the Blues snuffed out the Bruins in Game 7 of the Cup Final.
'He was good in '19, and people talked about his puckhandling then,' noted Raycroft. 'That was a big difference for the Blues when he came up — they became a better team instantly when he came up because he got out and moved the puck.'
Binnington, then only 25, had appeared in but one NHL game when the desperate Blues called him up mid-season from AHL San Antonio. The sixth goalie selected (No. 88 overall) in the 2011 draft, he went an astounding 24-5-1 in the regular season and then 16-10 in the postsesaon. Only one Boston shot beat him in Game 7.
'He's just built so much on his confidence,' said Raycroft, watching Binnington workout at the Garden the morning of the gold medal game. 'Canada's game against Finland, he must have touched the puck 35 times — he was out [of the net] every single time and he didn't miss.'
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at