Love him or hate him, his entire career is defined by a combination of smarts, hard work and resilience. Here are a few stats to back this up.
-Drafted 8th round while attending St. Paul's in Concord, NH
-4 years at Harvard, where he wore the C and earned ECAC 1st All Star Team
-Upon graduating, he went on to put up 4pts in 6 playoff games with Maine in the AHL
-Followed that up with a strong season in Maine and a call-up to the B's for good
-Played over 1000 games as a Bruin - good enough for 4th overall
-2006 named Director of Player Development
-2007 named Director of Hockey Operations
-Created the first ever Bruins Development Camp, which is now standard across the NHL
-2009 named Assistant GM
-2015 named GM
-2019 Wins NHL GM of the year
Here is a personal story I will share about Sweeney. During the 2012 NHL lockout, I went to go see Bentley University play Alabama-Hunstville over at the dreadful Ryan Rink in Watertown. This was before they built the new Bentley Arena. Anyways, the rink was run down and freezing. There were maybe 30 spectators in the stands. Don Sweeney was one of them. He was scouting this kid Bret Gensler, who led NCAA hockey in points the previous year. Bentley was a weak program in a weak division, but Sweeney loves scouting and loves the rink, so he was there. Gensler didn't turn out to be much of a player.
But you know who did? Torey Krug. Connor Clifton. Noel Acciari. Frank Vatrano.
Sweeney personally scouted each of these NCAA free agents and brought them to Boston. With the exception of Vatrano, each has made an impact on the Bruins success and allowed them to remain competitive without tanking for top 10 draft picks year after year.
He has certainly made a number of questionable decisions since 2015, but overall, his body of work is impressive. If you disagree, fine, but to attribute his career to following in other people's shadows...you are way off base.
