Management Cam Neely had a vision and hired Sweeney - 3 years later he was right

[DKH]

I would also add he stole Tuukka, He saw in Kevin Miller what nobody else did, and has Bjork who you love and some others still coming down the pipe line. Not much to dispute as the buc stops at the desk of the GM.

Chiarelli hired Sweeney as well

 

[Fenway]

Chiarelli hired Sweeney as well

and Chia hired Cassidy in 2008 and promoted him in 2012.

Cam COULD have cleaned house in 2015 with a new GM who was an outsider but he decided the B's had the right people to turn things around.

Cam's toughest job was convincing the Jacobs to be patient.

 

[LouJersey]

and Chia hired Cassidy in 2008 and promoted him in 2012.

Cam COULD have cleaned house in 2015 with a new GM who was an outsider but he decided the B's had the right people to turn things around.

Cam's toughest job was convincing the Jacobs to be patient.

Neely was talking about needing to get way more ELC in the lineup years ago.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Lets not forget that CHIARELLI'S imprint is still pretty significant here......No matter what. Pasta, Heinen, Donato, Gryz..............Just four of his picks before he left that have been major factors for this team.

Lol. Yep. The 4 players you just highlighted are definitely products of the GM and not the scouts who went out and found them.

Also, just to touch on a post after this one, Rask was not a Chiarelli trade. That was Gorton.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

At this point, it is pretty well proven that Peter Chiarelli is just not a very good GM. I feel like a fair amount of negative assumption made about Neely while Chia was still here actually seems to belong to Peter Chiarelli himself.

 

[HellToupee]

At this point, it is pretty well proven that Peter Chiarelli is just not a very good GM. I feel like a fair amount of negative assumption made about Neely while Chia was still here actually seems to belong to Peter Chiarelli himself.

I agree with this guy

 

[Smitty93]

I give kudos to DS for building a 'team'.

Bill Belichick has a great line "We're building a team, not collecting talent."

At this point, I think that we can all agree Sweeney has done a great job building a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup. He has made a mix of good and bad moves, but the key has been limiting the mistakes so they don't come back to hurt him.

Now, I don't want to turn negative, but there are plenty of Sweeney's moves I haven't liked. Chief amongst them was the decision to go for a re-tool versus a re-build. Hell, I wanted Cassidy fired from Providence years ago when we weren't developing any young players. When decisions work out, you look like a genius, and when they don't, well, that's when the pink slips come out. Sweeney has been more right than wrong. We love to be armchair GMs here, but there's a reason he's a GM in the NHL, and I'm sitting here typing this out on a Friday night.

To me, the most important quality for a GM is to be able to "self-scout". Just after that, is asset management. We point to the 2015 draft or the Beleskey signing (and some even mention the Backes signing) as moves we don't like. The ones I think about are not getting value for Eriksson at the 2016 trade deadline, and trading away significant draft capital for Rinaldo, Liles, and Stempniak. However, that was Sweeney's first year at the helm, and like our young players, he has grown and developed.

We're in a good spot now, but I think Sweeney's real test is yet to come. We should have a Cup contender for at least the next two years. Can Sweeney sign the young guys and negotiate the expansion draft so that Cup contender period is for an indefinite amount of time? Chiarelli made mistakes and closed the window. Has Sweeney learned from that? We're going to see over the next few years. I, for one, am hopeful for the future.

 

[bruinmann77]

I guess Chia does get some positive impact but really love the job Don has done with his staff under Cam. This seems to be working well unit

 

[GordonHowe]

I agree with this guy

I don't agree with this guy.

 

[Kalus]

Since when is it the team presidents job to do the GM, scouts, and coaches job as well? He clearly has his say but let's Donny and his staff do their jobs. Which is exactly how it should be. Same goes with Cassidy.

What a ridiculous statement.

Not sure if you work in a corporate setting or have served in the military, but the boss is ultimately responsible. He hires/fires and holds people accountable. He sets the he agenda and lays out the guidelines.

If he doesn’t want to put himself out there and take a ccountability, fine, but you don’t get to throw others under the bus and never take responsibility yourself.

 

[JRull86]

Not sure if you work in a corporate setting or have served in the military, but the boss is ultimately responsible. He hires/fires and holds people accountable. He sets the he agenda and lays out the guidelines.

If he doesn’t want to put himself out there and take a ccountability, fine, but you don’t get to throw others under the bus and never take responsibility yourself.

I'm actually in management in a corporate setting, I know how it works thanks.

The bolded is correct, and it's what he's actually doing. He has a vision for what the team should be, and he's letting the people in the positions HE PUT THEM IN, carry out that vision.

You bet that if he stuck his neck out for Sweeney and Cassidy and they failed miserably he'd lose his job as well.

But getting on him because he's allowing the people he put in their jobs to...you know...do their jobs instead of him? I'm lost.

 

[Kalus]

You want a president to go in the ice and coach? The buck did stop with him. That’s why your watching one of the best teams in the league. You can’t have ine way. You criticize when things aren’t going well. I get it. When things are going great, you need to give credit. Who cares that he doesn’t take criticism well. Is that a deal breaker for you. That’s media crap. It starts at the top.

Not sure you’ll find a quote where he says he made mistakes. He blamed Chia and he blamed Claude in countless interviews.

He said on Felger and Maz that he had final say on all deals. Doesn’t that mean that he should be responsible for the trades and signings?

Anyway, the team is doing great. If he deflects all praise to Donny, Bruce, and team then he is A-OK in my book.

Honestly, I am probably taking the Cam stuff too personally. He was my idol growing up and seemed like the embodiment of what it meant to be a stand up guy. He has been anything but as an executive, in my view anyway.

 

[Kalus]

I'm actually in management in a corporate setting, I know how it works thanks.

The bolded is correct, and it's what he's actually doing. He has a vision for what the team should be, and he's letting the people in the positions HE PUT THEM IN, carry out that vision.

You bet that if he stuck his neck out for Sweeney and Cassidy and they failed miserably he'd lose his job as well.

But getting on him because he's allowing the people he put in their jobs to...you know...do their jobs instead of him? I'm lost.

Let them do their jobs but know that you are responsible for the results. You chose them, you monitored them, and you laid out the vision. Not sure what there is not to get here.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

The rebuild worked because we didn't dump out top talent you have to spend 80 mil somewhere.

They committed to a plan and it worked even despite the crown jewel of 3 1sts in 2015 not part of it (1/3 has made an impact.) Drafting has been pnemomenal outside of that.

BUT this team has been very good for a decade. We never sucked even as consecutive DNQs. I don't think the 'job' our President (and the GM/coach) have done is super surprising or against the odds. We could have made a run 2015 or 2016 if we realized a good coach had been here for 7/8 years and it was time for a change or last year if we didn't lose 3 or 4 starting D men a week before the playoffs. Dave Lewis was the coach the last time we sucked.