February 25, 2025 | 11:56am ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

SWEENEY PLANTS SEEDS AS TRADE DEADLINE NEARS

Bruins GM Don Sweeney

BOSTON, MA — The NHL is rounding the final turn and heading down the stretch to the March 7 Trade Deadline. It has been almost six weeks since Boston Bruins president Cam Neely said his organization was looking at going down one of two paths at the deadline. The first is ‘buyers’ in preparation for an upcoming playoff run and the second is ‘sellers’ with the goal of “retooling” for the future.

Sunday, Bruins GM Don Sweeney, fresh off his 4 Nations Face-Off championship as GM of Team Canada, offered a clearer picture as to which direction Boston will take on and/or before March 7.

Sweeney met with the media and acknowledged this season has not gone as expected.

“We didn’t get off to the same start that we would have liked and preferred what we have in the past,” Sweeney said. “You know, when Joe (Sacco) took over, did a very good job in the early going. We had things going in the right direction. We took a turn in late January, but more importantly, early February, we just started to play more porously than we should as a group. We were chasing offense a little bit, defensively we started to give up some things. You can’t do that. And as the games get tighter, and you realize, even in the 4 Nations, you realize the scoring chances are at a minimum. Players are playing behind and above and we just didn’t do a good enough job collectively as a group. We started to spring some leaks and that usually shows up in your depth, and that’s probably where the shortcomings sit right now. As players that didn’t get off the great starts, got their games going, and then we just didn’t maintain it after that period of time. So, we’ve got some areas that we certainly need to address, and that falls on me.”

The Bruins (27-24-7, 61 points) are currently out of the playoff picture in the League’s Eastern Conference. They trail the Detroit Red Wings (29-22-6, 64 points), Ottawa Senators (29-24-4, 62 points), and Columbus Blue Jackets (27-22-8, 62 points) in the race for a wildcard postseason spot but those are not the only teams that are in contention for one of the two coveted positions.

Boston leads the New York Rangers (28-25-4, 60 points) by one point. We can also add the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, and Philadelphia Flyers, who are tied with 57 points.

That’s not to say Boston will not be in the playoffs when the regular-season comes to a close, however, just 24 games remain on the schedule. Fourteen of those contests will be against teams that are in playoff positions. The road ahead will be a bumpy one. Thirteen of their 24 tilts will be on the road where they have a 9-15-3 record this year. They are 18-9-4 at home.

The Black and Gold will also be skating without the club’s top two defensemen in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm.

McAvoy is sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Lindholm will miss the remainder of the year due to a fractured patella suffered on November 12 versus the St. Louis Blues that will require a second surgery next week.

Add it all up and it appears the retooling is about to begin.

“I think we’ll take a much more cautious approach as we approach the deadline,” said Sweeney. “That being said, if there are opportunities to improve our team now and certainly moving forward, whether that’s positional shifts or other teams are trying to identify that we may have a strength at, we will look at all opportunities to improve our team now, but more importantly, moving forward.

“I mean, it’s just stuff that happens during this period of time, and it may plant a seed for the draft and beyond, but there’ll be a lot of conversations with people asking what possible moves we can make. We’re just going to take a little more cautious approach in terms of being as aggressive as we have been in the past.”

View the TFP Trade Watch List

Being aggressive at past trade deadlines has seen players such as Patrick Maroon, Tyler Bertuzzi, Hampus Lindholm, and Taylor Hall brought to Boston with the hopes of contributing to deep playoff runs and a Stanley Cup championship. This time around, one can deduce that players of that status will, most likely, not be donning a Bruins uniform after the deadline.

The picture is becoming clearer that the franchise is looking to the future.

In his effort to build a champion-caliber team over the last two to three years, Sweeney had to give up pieces of the future in the form of draft picks.

In the previous three drafts (2024, 2023, 2022) Boston had 14 selections out of a possible 21. They did not have a first-round pick in 2022 and they had no first-round or second-round selections in 2023.

Looking to the future, the Bruins have no second-round nor fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. They also dealt away a third-round selection in 2027.

Add in the salary cap and Sweeney has the unenviable task of replacing those picks while keeping the team as competitive as possible. That is the price a General Manager pays when attempting to build a champion. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the Chicago Blackhawks who mortgaged the future to win three Stanley Cups in five years (2010, 2013, 2015).

I mention the salary cap because, as we all know, should Sweeney acquire a player or players, their contracts must fit under the cap. For that to happen, we can expect to see a player on Boston’s roster traded for that new player(s). And with six players (Brad Marchand, Trent Frederic, Riley Tufte, Cole Koepke, Justin Brazeau, and Parker Wotherspoon) slated to become unrestricted free agents after the current season, Boston has players who might finish the year elsewhere.

“Our veteran players have proven they’re good players,” Sweeney said when asked if he was open to moving players on the roster. “Is everybody having a career year, no, but that being said, they can help us and they can help other teams. That’s why you receive calls, and unfortunately, as part of the job, you have to make calls at this time of the year, and a lot of them, so that's just what's going to happen.”

Sweeney noted there is one veteran whom he would like to hold onto.

“That’s always been my ultimate goal,” Sweeney answered when asked if Marchand would remain a Bruin. “We've been in negotiations with Brad (Marchand) and communicating with him throughout the year. We’ll have to have a conversation now that the 4 Nations is over and sit down with Brad and his representatives and have a clearer path in the next two weeks as to what his final outcome will be.”

Whether you “read between the lines” or “look at the handwriting on the wall,” one can see that Bruins management has its eyes on the future.

Let the “retooling” begin.