Bruins president Cam Neely has acknowledged he's at least thought about the possibility of a rebuild, although he doesn't think the team is there yet. General manager Don Sweeney has cautioned that it could take "years" to replace Patrice Bergeron whenever he does retire, and he's suggested that a 2015-style retool could be needed.
While the president and GM would be the ones tasked with executing a rebuild or retool, team ownership would be the ones to decide whether one would be acceptable in the first place.
On Monday afternoon, during the Bruins' press conference introducing new coach Jim Montgomery, owner Jeremy Jacobs and CEO Charlie Jacobs were made available to the media for the first time since the end of the season and were asked if a rebuild or extended retool would be acceptable, or if their expectation is for the Bruins to compete every year.
Jeremy Jacobs gave a measured answer, saying it could change depending on the situation from year to year.
"I think it's an annual situation," he said. "I think you have to see where you are and where you're going. I think that Don and Cam visualize this team very well and understand what they have and perhaps what they need."
Charlie Jacobs, who is more involved in the day-to-day operations than his father at this point, gave a more direct answer, however. And he made it clear that a rebuild is not something he has much interest in, nor something he believes Bruins fans would accept.
"There's been a lot of theater around the National Hockey League this past week, in particular at the draft," the younger Jacobs began. "We saw some teams, what I would call sellers, and I think that would be awfully difficult to sell in this market to our fanbase. I do foresee -- I don't have a crystal ball -- but there are going to be days, let's be candid, there are going to be days when we don't have the opportunity to talk about Patrice Bergeron coming back to be our captain and our number one center.
"And those are things that we need to address every summer. And whether it's through the draft, Cam and Donny have mentioned this already, but we're a cap team -- meaning that we're going to spend to the max to deliver the best product we possibly can to our fans, and that is not going to change. In that regard, I would hope that people could put that in their back pocket and understand that we are committed to winning a Stanley Cup and we will do whatever it takes to get us to that threshold again."
The "theater" Jacobs mentioned likely refers to the Blackhawks, who traded away two promising young players in Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach for more draft picks as they continue to completely bottom out, now six years into a rebuild that has seen them miss the playoffs in four of the last five seasons and seemingly has no end in sight.
There is virtually no precedent for that kind of multi-year total teardown during the Jacobs' 47 years of owning the team. The closest would probably be 1996-2001, when the Bruins missed the playoffs three times in five years during a stretch that began with Cam Neely retiring and culminated in Ray Bourque being traded away.
The 2005-06 reset that saw the team trade away Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov was followed less than a calendar year later by the franchise-altering free-agent signings of Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard. During the aforementioned 2015 reset, the team kept its core of Bergeron, Chara, Tuukka Rask, David Krejci and Brad Marchand intact and never had to bottom out.
So, if the goal is to remain competitive every year, the natural follow-up is whether Sweeney and Neely are the right managers for the job. It is fair to point out that a rebuild wouldn't even be on the table if Sweeney had a couple top-six centers ready to take over for the aging Bergeron and Krejci. Charlie Jacobs, however, defended the records of both Neely and Sweeney, as well as the unpopular decision to fire Bruce Cassidy.
"I want to say the Boston Bruins have been to the Stanley Cup Final three times in the past 11 years under Cam Neely's tenure," Jacobs said. "I want to say we have somewhere around a .600-plus win percentage under our general manager's tenure. The head coach, frankly, is the responsibility of the general manager, in our opinion.
"He has to be accountable for that. Likewise, the president is accountable to the general manager. So, if they come to us and say, 'Hey listen, we think this might be in the best interest,' we're of course going to follow their lead. They're empowered to make those decisions and it's not our job to interfere with them, but rather to empower them to make those types of decisions and support them."
Of course, things could change if the Bruins begin missing the playoffs. During the Jacobs' tenure, no previous general manager has made it through to the other side of one of those major resets that featured missed postseasons -- Harry Sinden stepped aside in 2000, Mike O'Connell was fired in 2006, and Peter Chiarelli was fired in 2015.
We can debate whether the Jacobs actually care about winning the Cup or only care about getting some extra playoff revenue every year. We can debate whether a full rebuild would be the right path or not. But what doesn't seem debatable, based on their words and history, is that they do not have an appetite for rebuilds.
