Latest news with #JoeSacco
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
Joe Sacco reportedly informed he won't be Bruins next head coach
The Boston Bruins are expected to name a new head coach this week. It will not be Joe Sacco, who was the team's interim head coach for the majority of the 2024-25 season. Sacco has been informed by the Bruins that he will not stay on as the head coach, TSN's Eliot Friedman reported in his 32 Thoughts podcast that was released Monday. It doesn't sound like Sacco will be back on the Boston bench at all, with Friedman speculating the 56-year-old could join Craig Berube's staff with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sacco replaced Jim Montgomery last November, after Montgomery was fired after an 8-9-3 start to the season. Sacco led the team to a 25-30-7 record during his time on the bench. The Bruins got off to a good start after the coaching change, but the team stumbled enough the rest of the way to prompt general manager Don Sweeney to hold a fire sale at the NHL Trade Deadline. With Brad Marchand, Trent Frederick, Brandon Carlo, and Charlie Coyle among the players traded away, the Bruins lost seven of their final 10 games of the regular season to finish the year 33-39-10. It marked the first time Boston missed the playoff since the 2015-16 NHL season. Sacco, a Medford native, first joined the Bruins staff in 2014 as an assistant coach. Who could be the next Bruins head coach? The Bruins are expected to announce their head coaching hire early this week, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. In his podcast, Friedman said the team interviewed Marco Sturm, Mitch Love, Jay Woodcroft, and Jay Leach for the position last week. Sturm played five of his 14 NHL seasons in a Bruins sweater, and has spent the last three seasons as the head coach of the Ontario Reign, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. Woodcroft was the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers for two-plus seasons from 2022-24, which included a trip to the Western Conference Finals. He has been an assistant coach for Canada at the IIHF World Championships since April of 2024. Love is seen as one of the top young assistants in the NHL, as he's been on Spencer Carbery's staff with the Washington Capitals the last two seasons. The 40-year-old Love was also the head coach of Calgary's AHL team for three years. Leach knows quite a bit about the Bruins organization, having served as the head coach of the Providence Bruins for four years before he was named an assistant coach in Seattle in 2021. He returned to Boston's staff in 2024, and was an assistant under both Montgomery and Sacco last year.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Latest updates on Bruins coaching search
With in-person interviews beginning to take place, the Bruins coaching search is intensifying. Over the past few days, the names of finalists have begun to trickle out, and Boston's vision for their coaching vacancy is coming into focus. Advertisement Here's what's been reported thus far by outlets that have a track record of breaking Bruins insider information correctly: External candidates Marco Sturm The Athletic, TSN The former Bruins forward has spent the past three seasons coaching the Ontario Reign, Los Angeles' AHL affiliate. Sturm, 46, been in the Kings organization since 2018 and spent five seasons playing in Boston (2005-10). Jay Woodcroft TSN, The Fourth Period Edmonton's coach for parts of three seasons, Woodcroft, 48, amassed a 79-41-13 record behind the Oilers bench, but was fired following a slow start to the 2023-24 season. Mitch Love The Athletic Advertisement An assistant coach in Washington, Love, 40, is one of the youngest names on the market in this coaching carousel. Love works primarily with Capitals defensemen, who finished Top 10 in goals allowed and penalty kill en route to the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed. Internal candidates Joe Sacco and Jay Leach TSN At Boston's season-ending press conference, Sweeney said interim coach Sacco would be a finalist regardless of how the rest of the search transpired. 'He'll be part of the final group of coaches that we get down to, because I think he's earned and deserved that,' Sweeney said. 'Joe, when he took over the first 20 games, did a really, really good job.' Advertisement On his '32 Thoughts' podcast, Elliotte Friedman lumped assistant coach Jay Leach into that camp, too. 'I haven't been given an indication that either one of them has been told they're out,' Friedman said. The latest The most recent update on the Bruins search came from '32 Thoughts,' and affirmed that Sturm is very much in the mix. 'As we record this late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I'm under the impression Sturm is supposed to still visit Boston,' Friedman said. 'Whether that's to do another interview or be given the job, I can't say that as we record, but he's very much in it. I'm under the impression that he's still supposed to visit the Bruins... Woodcroft, I think he's another serious contender there.' More Bruins content Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bruins star confident in management to make team better next season
The Bruins have a busy offseason ahead of them after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign in which Boston finished dead last in the Eastern Conference standings and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2016. One of the first things the Bruins must tackle is their coaching situation. Joe Sacco took over in the interim after Jim Montgomery was fired in November. Sacco will be part of Boston's search, but the front office has been busy interviewing dozens of candidates. Advertisement The Bruins also need to replenish their roster with scoring help. Even with plenty of questions left to answer, David Pastrnak is confident in the front office to get the job done. 'We lost a couple players. We got some good talent. We have some draft picks. We are going to be much better,' the Bruins star told Aarin Vickers. 'I fully trust in the management, and I'm pretty sure and 100% positive we're going to be a much better team next year.' Boston finished 33-39-10 and dealt with of slew of problems throughout the season. Aside from losing two of its top defensemen in Hampus Lindholm (knee) and Charlie McAvoy (shoulder) for chunks of the season, Jeremy Swayman struggled in his first season as team's No. 1 goalie. Swayman went 22-29-7 with a 3.11 goals-against average and .892 save percentage. Advertisement Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov — the Bruins' two big offseason signings — struggled out of the gate. A lot went wrong for the Bruins from top to bottom. It's something Swayman believes will be corrected in the new season. 'Moving forward, that's not our standard. Our standard is much higher than what we had this year,' the goalie told Vickers. 'That's something that guys will come back with, a vengeance and have a chip on our shoulders. That's something we're excited about.' The Bruins have the No. 7 pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft next month and can start the re-tool of their roster. They could also be active on the restricted free agent market. Advertisement One thing Boston already took care of is giving general manager Don Sweeney a two-year extension. A lot can happen over the course of the summer, and it will be interesting to see how the Bruins address their problems. More Bruins content Read the original article on MassLive.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
What does Bruins' Don Sweeney extension mean? Faith in aggressive moves to come
The Boston Bruins did not sign Don Sweeney to a two-year extension to reward him for a decade of good service. On Tuesday, 10 years to the day since they hired him as GM, the Bruins signed Sweeney through 2028 to repeat how he's acted at earlier critical moments. To be aggressive. Sweeney is a diligent and thorough executive. His methodical coaching search aligns with how he operates. Locking in his own deal should settle the nerves of any candidate concerned about his future boss' job security. Advertisement But when Sweeney believes the time is right, he proceeds boldly and fearlessly. Consider the previous instances: 1. Trading five roster players ahead of the 2025 deadline. Sweeney could have executed targeted transactions to reshape the roster. Instead, with futures and a high 2025 first-round pick in mind, Sweeney moved Justin Brazeau, Brandon Carlo, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic and Brad Marchand. He also traded Max Jones, who was in AHL Providence at the time. Sweeney dealt interim coach Joe Sacco a bad hand by lopping off so much varsity experience for Marat Khusnutdinov, Jakub Lauko and Casey Mittelstadt, the NHLers he received in return. But Sweeney considered it necessary discomfort to accelerate the turnaround. Other assets accumulated in the selloff include Fraser Minten, Will Zellers, two 2025 second-rounders, a 2026 first-rounder and what will most likely be a 2027 or 2028 first-round selection based on how many more appearances Marchand makes in the Florida Panthers' playoff run. 2. Firing Jim Montgomery. Sweeney had a good relationship with Montgomery, whom he hired in 2022. Montgomery led a record-setting roster in 2022-23 and got the Bruins to the second round in 2023-24. He communicated well with his players. He devised good game plans, emphasizing net-front coverage and high-quality offense. But when Montgomery could neither maximize his players' output nor uncover solutions for the first 20 games of 2024-25, Sweeney saw no choice but to dismiss the 2023 Coach of the Year. 3. Acquiring Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway and Tyler Bertuzzi. The 2022-23 Bruins were rolling. They were deep at every position. Sweeney was not satisfied. He got a do-it-all defenseman in Orlov and a fourth-line headache in Hathaway. When Taylor Hall hurt his knee before the deadline, Sweeney secured insurance in Bertuzzi. All three were rentals. They did not come cheap: a 2023 first-rounder, 2024 first-rounder, 2025 second-rounder. All three walked at year's end after the Bruins lost to the Panthers in Round 1. Advertisement 4. Firing Bruce Cassidy. Sweeney and Cassidy had built deep ties. When he was assistant GM and director of player development, Sweeney dealt regularly with Cassidy, formerly Providence's head coach. Sweeney believed in Cassidy to succeed Claude Julien in 2017 and help the Bruins progress. Cassidy rewarded Sweeney's faith. He coached the Bruins to six straight playoff appearances. The Bruins lost to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. Cassidy helped Marchand grow into one of the NHL's top all-around left wings, Patrice Bergeron evolve from a defense-first center to an offensive presence and David Pastrnak become an offensive gamebreaker. But Sweeney concluded that Cassidy's approach had grown too hard on the players. The GM was correct. Players like Carlo and Frederic, who did not appreciate Cassidy's firmness, took forward steps under Montgomery. 5. Trading Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. When Sweeney replaced Peter Chiarelli in 2015, he took over a roster with two players at critical junctures: Hamilton, the No. 9 pick in 2011, and Lucic, the franchise's singular power forward. Hamilton wanted to be traded. Lucic had one year left on his deal. Sweeney identified moving the two as his most efficient route for initiating a revival. Trading Hamilton and Lucic netted Sweeney a haul: two 2015 first-rounders, two 2015 second-rounders, Martin Jones and Colin Miller. This gave the Bruins the 13th, 14th and 15th picks in 2015. What happened next to the first-year GM produced scars that still remain. He could not move up for an opportunity to draft Noah Hanifin, Zach Werenski or Ivan Provorov. Instead, the Bruins picked Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn, none of whom are still with the club. They left Mat Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser and Travis Konecny on the table. Advertisement So what does the extension mean? Largely, it was a formality. CEO Charlie Jacobs and president Cam Neely would not have changed course after Sweeney cut wide and deep before the deadline. Sweeney has advanced to the next stage of the rebuild: adding, not subtracting. To fulfill this segment, history says Sweeney will not hold back considering the urgency of the situation. He will have free rein to spend to the $95.5 million ceiling in 2025-26. If he wants a dynamic addition, Mitch Marner is waiting to become the NHL's highest-paid player. If he views an offer sheet as a mechanism to quicken the rebuild and weaken a rival, signing Matthew Knies would check both boxes. The extension does not alter Sweeney's plan. It hints at what is to come: a daring step forward.
Washington Post
20-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Bruins give GM Don Sweeney a 2-year extension to lead rebuild after first playoff miss since 2016
BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have signed general manager Don Sweeney to a two-year contract extension, trusting him to rebuild the roster after the team missed the playoffs this season for the first time since 2016. The move comes a month after team president Cam Neely said he needed to think about whether to keep Sweeney around after a decade in which the Bruins have seen unprecedented regular-season success followed largely by playoff flops. Sweeney fired coach Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to NHL records of 65 wins and 135 points in 2022-23, in November, then sold off the roster at the trade deadline when it failed to respond under interim Joe Sacco.
