His team faltering over the last five weeks, Sweeney was straddling that fragile, ambiguous line of buy/sell/hold Thursday morning as the NHL’s Friday deadline approached.
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His faltering team having lost 10 of 15 over the last five weeks (5-4-6 in that span), Don Sweeney straddled that fragile, ambiguous line of buy/sell/hold Thursday morning as the NHL’s Friday 3 p.m. ET deadline approached.
The 57-year-old Bruins general manager normally would be expected to be in it to win it — to be aggressive, to find the missing piece(s) that could make for a bona fide shot at a Stanley Cup when the NHL playoffs begin in mid-April. Sweeney has made such plays in the past, with his big “gets” for Rick Nash (2018), Hampus Lindholm (’22) and last spring’s supermarket sweep for Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, and Garnet Hathaway.
Exciting, promising and bold, all of it. Nothing makes for more sizzle than trade rumors and the machinations that sometimes turn them into reality.
Yet for all that razzmatazz, those maneuvers paid off only once, modestly, with the Round 1 win over the Leafs in 2018 that was a seven-game nailbiter (not to mention some icky tongue-licking by Brad Marchand). In ‘22 and ‘23, the Bruins were one-and-done in Round 1.
This very well could be a much different, low-key deadline for Sweeney. He is short on draft assets, in part because of the aforementioned bold deals, and his roster asset most likely to be dealt, Jake DeBrusk, has delivered tepid-to-weak numbers to date. The veteran winger has posted paltry 2-2–4 numbers these last 15 games. He is also only three months away from being an unrestricted free agent.
In short, it cannot be a long line of suitors for DeBrusk standing outside Sweeney’s Causeway Street doorstep. Sweeney’s best play may be to hold him, essentially as a self-rental, and suffer the potential risk of seeing him walk in July. There then would be no return assets, similar to Torey Krug’s adieu in 2020.
The powerhouse Panthers, 12-1-0 in their 13 games, on Wednesday picked up veteran scorer Vladimir Tarasenko from Ottawa for a pair of draft picks. Flipped from the Blues to the Rangers at the deadline a year ago, Tarasenko has had a decent season (41 points) with the struggling Sens. Surrounded by all that talent in Sunrise, he could be that classic “one-guy-to-put-it-over-the-top” acquisition by GM Bill Zito.
Would the addition of, say, one high-profile scorer dramatically change the outlook here? Doubtful. Sure, a rising tide typically lifts all ships, but with so many scorers underwater here, the answer would have to be a tsunami and not a Tarasenko.
The Bruins backline desperately needs Lindholm, out since wrenching a knee Feb. 19 vs. Dallas, back in the mix. If he is back in short order — as coach Jim Montgomery hinted earlier this week — Lindholm could be the club’s best re-acquisition at the deadline.
On Wednesday evening, the Flames finally found a new home for ex-BC defenseman Noah Hanifin, the 27-year-old coveted by Sweeney in the 2015 draft. The Hurricanes plucked the 6-foot-3 Hanifin that spring with the No. 5 pick, a spot where Sweeney no doubt would have done the same, had he been willing to hand Carolina his three picks (13, 14, 15) lower in the Round 1 order.
Sweeney, without a first-round pick this year (wheeled to Detroit for Bertuzzi), might have had to appease the Flames with a future Round 1 pick to make a serious bid for Hanifin. The Bruins already have gone without a first-rounder since 2021 (No. 21, Fabian Lysell). It looks from here like they’ve stretched that borrow-from-the-future play to its limits.
Sweeney’s one position of trade strength is in goal, where he has the ability to wheel either Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman, though Ullmark’s contract allows the veteran stopper the right to limit the list of prospective acquirers to 16 teams. Either the Devils or Kings would have to be interested, but it’s not known if one or both are on Ullmark’s “ding” list.
The younger Swayman can be dealt anywhere, but it’s virtually impossible to imagine that Sweeney would wheel the kid who might be the best they’ve drafted at that spot since Bill Ranford (No. 52, 1985), and possibly the second best all-time to Ken Dryden (No. 14, 1964).
They let Dryden go just a little too soon. Possibly a lesson there to remember, be it here at the deadline, or any time of year.
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