The Athletic - Boston NHL front-office confidence rankings, 2023

[UncleRico]

So you’re telling me fans don’t favor management groups who spend 2 years with of draft assets and $4.5m in future cap on 5 rentals who are no longer on the team?

Consider me shocked!

 

[blurbruin]

The Bruins fanbase ranks the Bruins Front Office the 24th best in the league. And these aren't anonymous twitter account mouth breathers - these are Athletic subscribers.

So the equivalent of Twitter Blue subscribers?

 

[DKH]

Well you do like regular season success more than playoff so Donnie is your man.

Second most playoff series and wins

Also Sweeney didn’t let Montgomery kid pick the lines for game 5 and come up with

Marchand/Coyle /Foligno
Bettuzzi/ Bergeron/ Pastrnak
Hall/Zacha/ debrudk

And scratch Frederic for Lauko who had 2 penalties in 7 minutes and screwed up a two on none with Nosek

I’m kind of not laying this at Donny’s feet
Just me

Ranking Sweeney 24 is actually validating what I knew all along but needed something specific to validate my premise

Thank you morons

 

[DKH]

Monty in an elimination game openly wonders how his herniated disc Captain who hasn’t been in a game in 2 weeks and Brad Marchand will look separated for first time in 8 years…..Sweeney fault for hiring Montgomery and firing Bruce I read

‘Yah buh Sweeney two towsan 15 draft Felgy coulda had Bartzel- gots to put him 28 behin’ da Canada guy’

 

[chizzler]

Once again people worrying about a nothing piece…..we know what the FO is.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

The 'fan base' grades certainly do seem predictably harsh. I'm more curious what grades posters here would dish out, using the same criteria. My guess is that the view amongst us would on average be at least slightly more favorable. If anyone's keen, please do share. Mine are as follows, which really fall pretty close to the public perceptions:

Roster building: B
Cap management: B-
Draft and develop: C-
Trading: B
Free Agency: B-
Vision: B-
Overall: B-

 

[KrejciMVP]

Not a fan of Sweeney and really dislike the scouting staff, I would put them around 20. Sweeney is strong on getting below market deals for his players and willing to make a big move at the deadline, but his drafting has been poor, no plan to replace Bergeron or Krejci, some truly abysmal free agent signings offset to a degree by a few above average ones.

agree. He inherited a great core. His signature draft pick is Mcavoy

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Once again people worrying about a nothing piece…..we know what the FO is.

We? I would say that article says quite the opposite. IMO Sweeney been a good GM
but that '15 draft, inability to groom a top 6C and and the Backes FA signing keep him from elite territory.

 

[NeelyDan]

what I think we tend to overlook is the management team OPTED IN to a C grade or less on the drafting and development front, because they invested instead in another cup run which required giving up high quality draft assets

which we should all support when the time is right

 

[UncleRico]

what I think we tend to overlook is the management team OPTED IN to a C grade or less on the drafting and development front, because they invested instead in another cup run which required giving up high quality draft assets

which we should all support when the time is right

They also spent a fair amount of draft capital erasing terrible FA signings they made between backes, beleskey, John moore, etc.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

what I think we tend to overlook is the management team OPTED IN to a C grade or less on the drafting and development front, because they invested instead in another cup run which required giving up high quality draft assets

which we should all support when the time is right

He still had the 2015 and 2017 drafts to bring in one top 6C and failed. Barzal in 2015
and at least Thomas in 2016, opting for you know who and Vaak. So that's a significant
strictly draft demerit.

 

[Healthy Wrap]

They also spent a fair amount of draft capital erasing terrible FA signings they made between backes, beleskey, John moore, etc.

They traded a 2nd round pick to rid themselves of Moore’s contract…and then proceeded to do nothing with the added cap space! That’s the kind of shit I hate

 

[UncleRico]

If we look at just draft picks traded away this is what they’ve done since roughly paying out extra to move beleskey in the rock Nash deal. This is what the bruins have traded away.

I left everything later than the 3rd round off.

2018- 1st, 3rd
2019- 2nd
2020- 1st
2021- 2nd
2022- 1st, 3rd
2023- 1st, 2nd
2024- 1st, 2nd, 3rd
2025- 2nd

Despite all of these outgoing draft picks only hampus Lindholm remains on the roster.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

He still had the 2015 and 2017 drafts to bring in one top 6C and failed. Barzal in 2015
and at least Thomas in 2016, opting for you know who and Vaak. So that's a significant
strictly draft demerit.

Why would they need to be looking for top 6 centers in 2017, let alone 2015?

While Bergeron and Krejci were still in their prime, Chara was nearing the end of his career, making defense a much bigger priority.

 

[UncleRico]

Why would they need to be looking for top 6 centers in 2017, let alone 2015?

While Bergeron and Krejci were still in their prime, Chara was nearing the end of his career, making defense a much bigger priority.

Same reason they drafted seguin, you take best player available.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

The 'fan base' grades certainly do seem predictably harsh. I'm more curious what grades posters here would dish out, using the same criteria. My guess is that the view amongst us would on average be at least slightly more favorable. If anyone's keen, please do share. Mine are as follows, which really fall pretty close to the public perceptions:

Roster building: B
Cap management: B-
Draft and develop: C-
Trading: B
Free Agency: B-
Vision: B-
Overall: B-

Roster building: B+
Cap management: A-
Draft and develop: B-
Trading: B+
Free Agency: C-
Vision: B-
Overall: B

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Same reason they drafted seguin, you take best player available.

Come on, Seguin was the 2nd pick in the draft. An absolute consensus pick.

 

[UncleRico]

Come on, Seguin was the 2nd pick in the draft. An absolute consensus pick.

Barzal , chabot and Connor were very widely regarded as consensus picks at those spots too.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Barzal , chabot and Connor were very widely regarded as consensus picks at those spots too.

There are never consensus picks in the middle of the first round, especially compared to a top 2 pick.

Anyway, the discussion was about looking for a top 6 center at that point, not about how the Bruins screwed up that draft.

 

[UncleRico]

There are never consensus picks in the middle of the first round, especially compared to a top 2 pick.

Anyway, the discussion was about looking for a top 6 center at that point, not about how the Bruins screwed up that draft.

Bergeron was going into his age 30 season after that draft. That’s the perfect time to start looking for successors… that way you don’t have to rely on two top 6 centers in their mid 30s.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Bergeron was going into his age 30 season after that draft. That’s the perfect time to start looking for successors… that way you don’t have to rely on two top 6 centers in their mid 30s.

But not the number 1 priority at that time.

They had drafted centers in 2014 (Ryan Donato, 2nd round), 2015 (JK Karlsson, 2nd round), 2016 (Trent Frederic, 1st round), 2017 (Jack Studnicka, 2nd round). Still had hope for Spooner at that time also.

 

[UncleRico]

But not the number 1 priority at that time.

They had drafted centers in 2014 (Ryan Donato, 2nd round), 2015 (JK Karlsson, 2nd round), 2016 (Trent Frederic, 1st round), 2017 (Jack Studnicka, 2nd round). Still had hope for Spooner at that time also.

Wait so you are saying centers werent the #1 priority in the first round of the 2015 draft because they had already drafted centers in the 2015 2nd round, 2016 1st round and 2017 2nd round.

Bergeron turned 30 the summer 2015, that’s what I was saying in the post you replied to about when they should have been developing successors in that draft. JFK, Frederic and studnicka were not with the organization at that point.


Sir you are going to have to explain to me how that works unless time travel was invented or something.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

Bergeron was going into his age 30 season after that draft. That’s the perfect time to start looking for successors… that way you don’t have to rely on two top 6 centers in their mid 30s.

To me, that's not even the point.

You don't draft for need in the NHL. That's a football thing when you're picking guys 3-6 years older than you do in hockey. Players you expect to come in and contribute right away.

"Need" should only ever factor in to an NHL draft if you have two players on your board ranked identical and you use it as a tie-breaker. And even then it's an overall snapshot of the current prospect pool that you base your assessment on - not the NHL roster.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Why would they need to be looking for top 6 centers in 2017, let alone 2015?

While Bergeron and Krejci were still in their prime, Chara was nearing the end of his career, making defense a much bigger priority.

Bergeron turned 30 in 2015 and Krejci in 2016 so they absolutely needed to be drafting
Centers.

 

[PlayMakers]

Is this a fantasy hockey league? GM rankings should be according to how far a team has gone in the post season, the number of appearances in the finals for the past decade etc. Not "prospect pools" and free agent signings. Competitive GM's consistently do what needs to be done to keep their team competitive, year after year. By that basis DS is a top 10 GM. The fan base has it wrong and the Athletic even more so.

That's probably the best way of looking at it. Take the emotion out, take personal preferences and biases out. Rank the GM's based on their success, both regular season and post-season. Who's won Cups? Short of that, who's got the most post-season wins in the last 5 years? Short of that, who's got the most regular season wins the last 5 years? Do the math and there's your answer.

I don't have the numbers, but I'd be surprised if Sweeney isn't in the top10 based on that criteria.