Who Inherited a Better/Worse Team: Chia or Sweeney?

[Number8]

Chiarelli did very little in hindsight.

A few tweaks. What any GM can do. Crazy to think we thought he was the best in the business when we won the Cup. Hindsight is 20-20. Sweeney is in a much worse position.

There's good and bad to everything. Chia probably went overboard in giving out friendly contracts, but he did change the culture in Boston to one where players wanted to come here.

For those of us a little longer in the tooth -- after years and years of seeing good players forced out and literally abused when we had teams that were capable of winning the Cup with just a piece or two more was infuriating.

It wasn't the start of hockey season if there wasn't a key player holding out.

The Boston Bruins were pretty much the only major team in the league operating with a self imposed salary cap and a curmudgeonly past his prime GM/President alienating every player he could in the press.

Chia gave us a Cup (whether he was part or soley responsible is irrelevant to me) and made Boston a place players want to play. It was time to move on, but he'll forever have my thanks for that.

 

[Number8]

Surprised that nobody has mentioned the vast difference in the team's reputation between then and now.

We all remember what the league's players thought of the Bruins back then. Coming off the heels of the Sinden era and all the mgmt/player antagonistic crap that went on for so many years, Jacobs' prominent role in the lockout was still fresh in everyones' minds.

Just look at the players Chiarelli had to go the scrap heap for to fill out the roster. Tenkrat, mowers, Slegr etc.

Of course, being able to spend to the cap plays a big part of this, but you have to recognize that he turned the team's reputation around and made Boston a place where players wanted to go. This was one of his top two stated goals when he took over and he certainly accomplished that goal.

Sweeney has the benefit of taking over an organization that is a sought after destination across the league.

Just read this and realized you beat me to the punch -- and described the ridiculous situation in Boston in those years far better than I. Those who weren't around for the ridiculous garbage you accurately describe will have very little appreciation for what a long term positive impact Chiarelli had on this team and will do for many years post his departure.

 

[Ice Nine]

Go do a little research and you can find Chiarelli praising Dave Lewis and saying he will be back - then firing him a week later.

Chiarelli my be to HF posters didn't make the deal but you won't convince anyone in the front office at the time Gorton did nothing more than execute back room moves and what Chiarelli wanted done

Fair enough. It just seems funny that a guy like Chiarelli who couldn't pull off a significant hockey trade in years, except for the Seguin Trade Disaster, and was probably stopped by Neely at committing more disastrous trades (Vermette) at the trade deadline this, and couldn't draft his way out of a paper bag for most of 2007-2014 (Pasta), managed to sign Chara, trade for Rask, and draft Lucic, Marchand, Kessel all in the span of 2 months and all done behind the scenes. You must understand given his track record why I'm incredulous about Chiarelli's role. Even if we give him credit for Rask and Chara (I'm less bullish on Rask, as he was a draft day trade, no?) I still don't believe he had anything to do with the drafting that year, just because he had access to Ottawa reports and Melnick was being a hard ass. I feel like helping the Bruins draft while knowing the Ottawa draft strategy would be wholly unprofessional, likely illegal under his contract with Ottawa, and certainly highly unethical. But if that is how Front Offices are run, then it is what it is.

But anyways, this is probably the last thing I'll say on this count. I have little interest in Gorton now, anyways.

Whatever moves Chiarelli made in 2006, he sure has left us a lot of lemons. And I'm not sure how to make lemonade at this point.

 

[Number8]

And since Chara & Savard were signed (in those dark days when no one wanted to play in Boston, by the way) how many free agents have jump at the chance to play for the current Bruins?

Chara signed with Boston because of Chia -- and, I'm sure, because he trusted Chia not to treat him like the player relations cesspool Boston had become.

We all love the Marc Savard who played his heart out in Boston, but he was not considered a slam dunk character guy (on the ice, I'm referring to -- nothing to do with off ice) that could necessarily have his free pick of where to go.

Jerome Iginla (another top class guy) went out of his way to come to Boston after the Pittsburgh fiasco.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Chara signed with Boston because of Chia -- and, I'm sure, because he trusted Chia not to treat him like the player relations cesspool Boston had become.

We all love the Marc Savard who played his heart out in Boston, but he was not considered a slam dunk character guy (on the ice, I'm referring to -- nothing to do with off ice) that could necessarily have his free pick of where to go.

Jerome Iginla (another top class guy) went out of his way to come to Boston after the Pittsburgh fiasco.

You know that for a fact?

The big money long term contract was just gravy?

 

[Colt.45Orr]

You know that for a fact?

The big money long term contract was just gravy?

What swung in Boston's favour was that they could offer Chara the open captaincy (which he wanted baaaaaaad). Other bidders already had captains locked in and would have had to strip them and risk locker room division to give Chara what he wanted.

 

[Scotto74]

You know that for a fact?

The big money long term contract was just gravy?

he got a bigger contract offer over what Boston gave him. Boston told him he would get the C and it would be his team and that was what made him choose to sign here.

so to answer your question yes the big money long term contract was just gravy.

 

[ThomasJ13]

Chia inherited a far worse roster

Sweeney inherited a stronger roster but worse cap situation

The roster below was and is absolute garbage and possibly one of the worst lineups I ever watched toss a spoked B on their backs


http://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/BOS/2007.html

Not sure why Chiarelli gets so little credit for building a defense that led to winning/competing for a cup. 5 of the 6 eventual starters were obtained by Chiarelli (6 if you think he had something to do with Chara), most via extremely shrewd trades. The opening night defense for the Bruins in 2006 included Jason York, Paul Mara, Brad Stuart, Nathan Dempsey, Andrew Alberts and Chara. Yikes.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

he got a bigger contract offer over what Boston gave him. Boston told him he would get the C and it would be his team and that was what made him choose to sign here.

so to answer your question yes the big money long term contract was just gravy.

Who offered him more and how much?

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

You guys not giving the Chara deal to Chia are hilarious. The OTTAWA media acknowledges that Chia was the one who got Chara:

http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/06/10/patient-peter-chiarelli-architect-of-bruins-success

Though Chiarelli was technically working for Ottawa when Chara signed a five-year, $35 million contract, he made it clear in the plan he laid out for owner Jeremy Jacobs that the organization needed to be built around a franchise player.

Chiarelli told interim GM Jeff Gorton to make the deal happen because Chara wanted to stay in the East. He could have gone to the L.A. Kings, but signed in Boston and the rest is history.



I've been trying to explain this to you guys for over a year now. You don't become the GM of the team and not lay the plan out for them to execute on. His marching orders were clearly given, and at the draft too. As I've already said, Chia gave Gorton the order to try and trade for Backstrom, and then when the trade didn't go through they took Kessel. Likewise Chia's fingerpints are all over the big UFA deals like Chara. Those are HIS guys.

 

[ChargersRookie]

There's good and bad to everything. Chia probably went overboard in giving out friendly contracts, but he did change the culture in Boston to one where players wanted to come here.

For those of us a little longer in the tooth -- after years and years of seeing good players forced out and literally abused when we had teams that were capable of winning the Cup with just a piece or two more was infuriating.

It wasn't the start of hockey season if there wasn't a key player holding out.

The Boston Bruins were pretty much the only major team in the league operating with a self imposed salary cap and a curmudgeonly past his prime GM/President alienating every player he could in the press.

Chia gave us a Cup (whether he was part or soley responsible is irrelevant to me) and made Boston a place players want to play. It was time to move on, but he'll forever have my thanks for that.

Are they really? I think that notion was very short lived. Ignila signing here was more because he probably felt he had the wool pulled over his eyes by Pittsburgh. Bruins were also a legitimate cup contender, in the end we see $$$ is the boss as he went to an inexperienced young team after one year. It is not by what he signed for but where he signed that I say that.

 

[ODAAT]

Are they really? I think that notion was very short lived. Ignila signing here was more because he probably felt he had the wool pulled over his eyes by Pittsburgh. Bruins were also a legitimate cup contender, in the end we see $$$ is the boss as he went to an inexperienced young team after one year. It is not by what he signed for but where he signed that I say that.

disagree, UFA overpayments happen all the time, one could argue rarely is there an unrestricted player who isn`t overpaid. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY was lining up to sign on the dotted line with the B`s prior to the Chia years without a gross overpayment and while he didn`t go out and make any huge off season signings, his philosophy (can argue whether it was right or wrong) was to create an internal continuity by retaining those he and his scouts felt were important to keep and one thing I never saw/heard was a player dying to get outta dodge screaming all the way about how much of a miserable experience it was playing in Boston

No clue how old you are, but this was an organization where it was more surprising NOT to hear about a player in a contract squabble over the summer, not that way under Chia

He made his mistakes, but he and whomever else was involved made every effort to make an acute change in the culture of this organization and I`m sorry, a year or two here and there where they didn`t meet my expectations won`t change my belief that this organization is once again one that players would definitely pick up their phones to talk to the GM about joining if the chance is there

 

[Scotto74]

Who offered him more and how much?

well it was about a decade ago but if I am not totally losing my mind I believe it was LA and they offered him a max contract.

 

[13Hockey]

You're right, that was an absolute garbage lineup.

But you want to know something jaw dropping?

That garbage lineup scored more goals in 2006/07 season than our team did last year. It also had four guys who scored 20+ goals (Savard, Bergeron, Murray, Sturm) including two who scored 25+ goals (Sturm/Murray).

• Bruins 2006/2007: 219 goals for.
  
• Bruins 2014/2015: 209 goals for.

.

first 2 years after the lockout goal scoring was way up you can't compare those seasons to now

Like 13 teams scored over 250 goals in 06-07 only 2 teams in the NHL scored over 250 goals this season

258 goals lead the league this year in 06-07 that would have been the 10th highest in the league some teams were scoring 300 goals the first 2 years post lockout

 

[ODAAT]

well it was about a decade ago but if I am not totally losing my mind I believe it was LA and they offered him a max contract.

seem to recall the same, Kings or Sharks were one of the two teams I seem to recall offering the max

 

[Scotto74]

seem to recall the same, Kings or Sharks were one of the two teams I seem to recall offering the max

I knew there were two but I only remember LA as being one of them can't remember who the other was.

 

[Shoebottom]

There is no comparison to who inherited a better team. Sweeney has a team full of proven talent, soft but legit talent. Most of the vets are under 30. You got moves you can make. Chia on the other hand had nothing. Unless you believe he had nothing to do with savard & Chara signing here which is absurd. Chia changed something like 85% of the players. Sweeney won't have to be so drastic. P
And Krejci, lucic, Marchand, & kessel were total unknowns at the time. Pasta, spooner, & Connolly are more established already then that group. And like others mentioned, chia changed the player culture on this team. Yup, chia for all his faults sure did a great job those first few years. We can only hope Sweeney can do something like that. But Chia's time was up and it's cool. It's hard to be on cloud 9 one instant and then fall to the ground without repercussions. It couldn't get any better: Winning the cup sandwiched between seguin & Hamilton. Has that ever happened? Team winning the cup while picking 2nd & 9th overall? And yet chia squandered that golden moment, that ultimate high. I think that's why everyone is so sour on chia these days. Including me. But you can't deny what chia did for this club.

So like I said: no comparing to what chia had to work with and what Sweeney has to work with.