How would you rate Don Sweeney's work after Day 1 of free agency?

[DKH]

He is all over the map.

Hamilton deal: F
Lucic deal: A
Draft: C
Rinaldo deal: D
Jones deal: A
Smith deal: C
Beleskey deal: B+

His moves have definately been getting better but the botched Hamilton situation unfortunately still is the most significant.

Now go land Yandle.

Hamilton deal - B
Lucic Deal A
Draft A-
Rinaldo C
Jones deal A
Smith deal B
Beleskey B

considering the shti that went on he had to deal with he gets a B for recovery- Team Hamilton disgusts me

Draft was my favorite- there wasn't one guy I did not know where I could not have written a paper on the spot- loved Lauzon and Senyshyn if not his spot. Drafted Lauzon in the SIM for my team. Carlo love him as well. Overall ecstatic with this 10 player haul but the goalie Vadar...meh- but Kirk liked him so I guess that is good enough for me

type of draft if you know these players you are impressed

had the Bruins not had Heinen in system I bet they would have taken Barzal but with Bergeron and Krejci the expected/projected foundation at center, two high end yutes Spooner and Koko close, the FA they signed from Finand, and DANTON HEINEN it made sense to go after two skilled down low scorers

did I tell you I love the draft

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Not sure we are any better.

On paper but maybe they congeal and play better as a team, yeah I heard that on the radio today, but I agree.

 

[DKH]

Sweeney's best move to me was kicking Chiarelli right in the nuts.

Poor Peter had to give Sekera a 6/$33 million dollar contract and he must have cried doing it knowing it should have been Hamilton.

Peter correctly knew Team Hamilton (mom and dad were BOTH Canadian Olympic athletes) wanted out and would likely welcome a return to more 'comfortable' among other things surroundings and was poised to get Dougie from Boston with his bundle of draft picks and prospects- plus the leverage. Oh, the leverage.

but it didn't happen and Peter not only didn't get Dougie, he saw Dougie go to his primary rival Calgary, and he gave the 6/33 to Sekera who I'm sure was not the foundational young player Peter envisioned in Hamilton to be part of the next great Edmonton team,

good for Sweeney- he got Peter good....I personally love it worked out as bad as it could for him.....I love a good fukk over

ok, sorry back to how Sweeney ****ed up that deal

 

[Pia8988]

Sweeney's best move to me was kicking Chiarelli right in the nuts.

Poor Peter had to give Sekera a 6/$33 million dollar contract and he must have cried doing it knowing it should have been Hamilton.

Peter correctly knew Team Hamilton (mom and dad were BOTH Canadian Olympic athletes) wanted out and would likely welcome a return to more 'comfortable' among other things surroundings and was poised to get Dougie from Boston with his bundle of draft picks and prospects- plus the leverage. Oh, the leverage.

but it didn't happen and Peter not only didn't get Dougie, he saw Dougie go to his primary rival Calgary, and he gave the 6/33 to Sekera who I'm sure was not the foundational young player Peter envisioned in Hamilton to be part of the next great Edmonton team,

good for Sweeney- he got Peter good....I personally love it worked out as bad as it could for him.....I love a good fukk over

ok, sorry back to how Sweeney ****ed up that deal

Except his job isn't to stick it to Chiarelli. Sure it would have been a great bonus to **** him over and get a great return, but his primary objective should be making Boston the best he can. "I know I got an awful return for one of the best young defeseman in the league and our best trade piece, but man i sure stuck it to ole Pete. Now that poor ******* will have to go pay Sekera what he would have paid Hamilton"

 

[BruinsNeedaRussian]

How in the hell could sweeney stomach watching a passive chiarelli all these years? Complete opposite approaches.

He will slow down as he comes closer to the team he visions.

That being said, tempted to go F, but I will say D. Have not seen any professionals back his Dougie trade, have major concerns on Beleskey, do not like Rinaldo being on this rosters, skeptical of our draft picks, pretty meh on the Smith deal, and a major fan on Lucic traded (essentially for 2 1sts+.

 

[Fenway]

Sweeney's best move to me was kicking Chiarelli right in the nuts.

Poor Peter had to give Sekera a 6/$33 million dollar contract and he must have cried doing it knowing it should have been Hamilton.

Peter correctly knew Team Hamilton (mom and dad were BOTH Canadian Olympic athletes) wanted out and would likely welcome a return to more 'comfortable' among other things surroundings and was poised to get Dougie from Boston with his bundle of draft picks and prospects- plus the leverage. Oh, the leverage.

but it didn't happen and Peter not only didn't get Dougie, he saw Dougie go to his primary rival Calgary, and he gave the 6/33 to Sekera who I'm sure was not the foundational young player Peter envisioned in Hamilton to be part of the next great Edmonton team,

good for Sweeney- he got Peter good....I personally love it worked out as bad as it could for him.....I love a good fukk over

ok, sorry back to how Sweeney ****ed up that deal

Dan good to see you back

We don't know why Hamilton wanted out of here but it certainly appears that was the case.

Don 'thought' that by getting draft picks this year he would be able to move up and for whatever reason he couldn't. While most in hockey think the Bruins have a couple of reaches in their draft picks, I have to assume the Bruins were sticking with what their draft board told them.

Lucic he ended up with 2 #1's and next year would seem to be a guaranteed lottery pick as San Jose looks like they will finish dead last in their division.

Today went well and he still has some wiggle room.

I am guessing they will make a run for Oduya but time will tell but I am content with the moves today.

Can this team be a top 3 in the Atlantic next season? Now I think it is possible.

The East is a weaker conference than the west but as of now I would say 14 of the 15 teams have a shot at the playoffs as only Carolina seems to be a lost cause.

 

[Mathews28]

We downgraded big time at forward . Two top 6 spots filled w a third liner and 4th liner

Downgrade for now, maybe, but not big time. What had Smith done lately to earn his $3.4m? What did soderberg do last year that spooner didn't? They lost the potential and the mystique of Lucic, that's about it. Meanwhile, they've got more assets they can use to further upgrade the team and they've got cap space.

Not sure they can get there this year, but the team is a top Dman and a scoring winger away from contention. Tall order, but they are making strides

 

[KuralySnipes]

Pros:
Draft, Beleskey signing, Hayes acquistion, Lucic trade

Con:
Hamilton trade, not being able to trade up after stock piling mid 1st round picks. Drafting DeBrusk and Senshyn may hurt too.

Grade: C

 

[World of Wardlow]

The more beers I have the better he looks.

Sweeney had restored 3/4 my faith in this team so far

 

[13Hockey]

We downgraded big time at forward . Two top 6 spots filled w a third liner and 4th liner

Hayes 19 goals > Smith 13
Beleskey 22 goals > Lucic 18
Spooner 8 in 29 > Soda 13 in 82


Beleskey 30 goals in his last 80 games >>> Smith 19 goals in his last 125

Healthy Krejci> Injuried Krejci

Full season of Pasta> Half season of Pasta

4th line of Kelly, The Fin, Talbot, Ferlin, Rinaldo >>> Paille, Campbell, Gagne

I'd say we upgraded up front

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

He is all over the map.

Hamilton deal: F
Lucic deal: A
Draft: C
Rinaldo deal: D
Jones deal: A
Smith deal: C
Beleskey deal: B+

His moves have definately been getting better but the botched Hamilton situation unfortunately still is the most significant.

Now go land Yandle.

you have it scored identical to me. I honestly have no read on him right now. I got us between 11th and 7th in the East as is.

 

[13Hockey]

Last 2 Season

Forward Group

We have basically just replaced Smith, Lucic, and Soderberg with Hayes, Beleskey, and Spooner

Lucic- 42 goals in 161 Games= Average 21 goals per year

Smith- 33 goals in 163 games= 17 goals per year

Soderberg- 29 goals in 155 games= 15 goals per year
Replacements

Beleskey- 31 goals in 110 games= 23 goals per year

Hayes- 30 goals in 125 games= 20 goals per year

Spooner- 8 goals in 52 games= 13 goals per year

These are the last 2 years I don't care about Lucic past as he is trending downwards not sure why so many people think we downgraded upfront these are basically the only changes we made upfront but we will also have a full year of Pastrnak, a healthy Krejci, And a full season of Connolly

Im all aboard with Donny he has improved our Offense and I don't think he is Done if he gets a legit Top 4 D I will gave him an A as a grade for his offseason

This team is gonna surprise a lot of people Im think we are a 100-104 point team

 

[vjcsmoke]

I didn't see a B+ option, but that's what I would give. Feeling a lot more positive about this team's ability to score after these two moves. Both guys we brought in can be 20 goal wingers. Belesky is also on very reasonable money in today's free agent market.

All we really need now is a top 4 or top 2 defenseman and we will be in very good shape for the upcoming season. We now also have breathing room to sign a decent free agent or swing a trade using our stockpiled assets for a good D-man.

 

[Ivo]

...

Hamilton trade: F
Lucic trade: B+
Draft: A
Smith trade: A
Belesky contract: B

Still need defense.

Overall grade is a C so far.

Don't forget the Rinaldo trade (F for me) and the Spooner signing (A+ for me).

 

[Ivo]

Sweeney's best move to me was kicking Chiarelli right in the nuts.

Poor Peter had to give Sekera a 6/$33 million dollar contract and he must have cried doing it knowing it should have been Hamilton.

Peter correctly knew Team Hamilton (mom and dad were BOTH Canadian Olympic athletes) wanted out and would likely welcome a return to more 'comfortable' among other things surroundings and was poised to get Dougie from Boston with his bundle of draft picks and prospects- plus the leverage. Oh, the leverage.

but it didn't happen and Peter not only didn't get Dougie, he saw Dougie go to his primary rival Calgary, and he gave the 6/33 to Sekera who I'm sure was not the foundational young player Peter envisioned in Hamilton to be part of the next great Edmonton team,

good for Sweeney- he got Peter good....I personally love it worked out as bad as it could for him.....I love a good fukk over

ok, sorry back to how Sweeney ****ed up that deal

Except Edmonton is arguably better off using that money on Sekera, who might very well be the better player than Hamilton while keeping their draft picks (I think they actually traded the picks for Reinhart). So they actually have Sekera, Reinhart and another pick or two, where they would just have Hamilton. There is no guarantee that Hamilton will develop into the elite no. 1 Dman some people appoint him to be. He may just as well end up a Bouwmeester.

 

[b in vancouver]

The more beers I have the better he looks.

I'm a wee bit tipsy. It's fine.

 

[finchster]

People acting like the Belesky contract is so bad; he only has a NMC for two years. After that, we can unload him if need be. It's really not that bad.

This Belesky contract will be a killer, such a stupid deal.

 

[MarchandNoseBest]

Overall, I'm still very undecided on Sweeney, which is a lot better than a few days ago. It has at least gone from no obvious plan or direction to pretty clear what his plan is: he places a very high value on draft picks and cap space (as evidenced by the Lucic + Hamilton trades, and to a lesser degree, potentially even the Smith/Hayes trade depending on how much less than Smith we can get Hayes to sign for).

Would've liked to see him continue down that picks/prospects path with the Reilly Smith trade instead of Hayes and invest the money in a value FA like Justin Williams. I think the loading up on picks and cap space is a very sound plan that I'm glad to see Sweeney pursue aggressively, especially for a farm system that has been as weak as the Bruins.

It's also clear that he places a huge emphasis on playing tough hockey, which I'm a big proponent of. He also managed to do it without falling in love with a player who fits that style perfectly in Lucic, and has added a lot of physical play to our forward group while subtracting a piece like that because he realized the value was hugely in value of trading Lucic rather than giving him a massive extension. Chiarelli did tend to fall in love with his own guys too much, so not falling in love with Lucic despite loving that style of play and then just knocking the value out of the park is a big one for Sweeney's resume to date.

Downsides are: I despise the fact that he traded Hamilton, particularly for the package that he did. I get Hamilton may not have wanted to be here, but the value was very poor and he shouldn't have let Hamilton dictate things here. Dougie had no leverage to force his way out of town as a RFA and if Sweeney didn't get the proper value, which he clearly didn't, then he should've held onto an unhappy Hamilton until either the situation changed or he could've squeezed better value out of the rest of the league.

It's also not clear just how good of a talent evaluator he is yet. Even if he negotiated a more rational price for Beleskey than anticipated, it's still not clear how good of a player he really is. 5 years for a guy with 1 year of production is a pretty big concern and risk to me, even if he negotiated off of a disastrous number that Beleskey would never live up to like the $5M+ that we heard.

Then you have the draft which Sweeney is obviously less involved in than other aspects, but if he was even partially involved in the higher picks, lots of people have questions about what the Bruins did at 14 and 15. Maybe they'll be proven right and everyone else wrong, you never know in the draft. But Sweeney's talent evaluation skills are still up in the air, and that's obviously a very big one.

So to summarize: I LOVE his plan, but still very unsure about how good he'll be at executing it. I think he panicked on the Dougie situation (big strike against him considering the importance of that deal, where as all the heavy critics over the Rinaldo trade are basically going nuts about what is essentially an irrelevent move to the Bruins future) and there's still a lot of unknown this early into his tenure. I'd go with a C-, or incomplete if you let me take the easy way out.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

Don't forget the Rinaldo trade (F for me) and the Spooner signing (A+ for me).

I did forget the Rinaldo trade. The Spooner signing is what it is.

For Rinaldo, I'm for it. Value was crazy, but I like the acquisition.

Rinaldo: C

 

[Mount Kramer Cameras]

Spooner signed for two years at $950k/yr, yet I would've found $1.950m/yr more than acceptable. This is beyond a steal considering how he's going to grow into his powerplay role. This makes me feel like Beleskey's first two years are really only $2.8m/yr - which coincides with the two year no trade agreement. It's all fits together perfectly

Great work from Don

 

[Man Rocket]

Hamilton deal: D (would have been F, but not after we see Hamilton didn't want to resign, he could have made him publicly available adn.)
Lucic deal: A
Draft: B- (wanted Barzal, Connor, but i like the picks more and more, after round 1 was great)
Rinaldo deal: C- (gave too much but like the move overall getting more aggressive )
Jones deal: A+
Smith deal: A (Hayes is an upgrade IMO, got rid of Savard's papers)
Beleskey deal: A- (everyone was expecting 5m per at LEAST)


Overall grade = 85.8 (B)

 

[Joe Zanussi]

I'm on board. I think our team will be noticably faster next year. One d away, imo.

 

[Over the volcano]

Sweeney's best move to me was kicking Chiarelli right in the nuts.

Poor Peter had to give Sekera a 6/$33 million dollar contract and he must have cried doing it knowing it should have been Hamilton.

Peter correctly knew Team Hamilton (mom and dad were BOTH Canadian Olympic athletes) wanted out and would likely welcome a return to more 'comfortable' among other things surroundings and was poised to get Dougie from Boston with his bundle of draft picks and prospects- plus the leverage. Oh, the leverage.

but it didn't happen and Peter not only didn't get Dougie, he saw Dougie go to his primary rival Calgary, and he gave the 6/33 to Sekera who I'm sure was not the foundational young player Peter envisioned in Hamilton to be part of the next great Edmonton team,

good for Sweeney- he got Peter good....I personally love it worked out as bad as it could for him.....I love a good fukk over

ok, sorry back to how Sweeney ****ed up that deal

No joke and he sent lucic and jones to division rivals as well. Sayonara chia.

 

[bolt thrower]

It all depends on how our 3 first round picks turn out. The Hamilton and Rinaldo trades were atrocious but all the other moves a good to great. Give him a B. My first impression has changed dramatically after the Hamilton trade. Still afraid he is able to come out with another dreadful move.

 

[JOKER 192]

Hamilton was a disaster, nothing short of a disaster,all things considered D-

Lucic was a good , great return A

Jones deal was amazing A+

Draft was disturbing, I hope all these guys or at least some work out but I would have done it different C-

Rinaldo is meh, Would have preferred to keep the pick and give the yutes a shot, can't be worse than this guy D

Hayes I don't know about but I'm hoping he can surprise me, I didn't dislike Smith like most around here , getting rid of Savard's contract was a plus. C

Belesky again here I'm not as thrilled as many seem to be with this move, the $$ are less than I thought it would take but that's about all I like about this deal C-

McQuaid glad he's back B

Freeing up cap space in what looked like a hopeless situation A

I am on the fence here still but hoping things work out . This has the potential to be the bomb in either direction. His work is unfinished so I'll wait to see how this all plays out but so far I'm unsure.