The Boston Bruins don’t want to be sellers. They don’t want to retool, and they certainly don’t want to rebuild. They haven’t done anything of the sort since 2015, when Don Sweeney traded away Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton for draft picks during his first offseason as general manager.
That could be on the table ahead of the March 7 trade deadline, though, a reality that team president Cam Neely acknowledged Wednesday evening at the team’s Black and Gold Gala.
“We're gonna have to see where we are in the standings when teams start really fleshing themselves out,” Neely told reporters. “There's some teams right now that are bona fide sellers, and there's a lot of teams that are probably looking to buy. So, we're in the playoff picture right now. That could change, but right now we're in the playoff picture and we want to continue to improve as a hockey club, whether that's internally or externally.
“We’ll see where we’re at,” he added. “I think right now, we've gotta look at two paths: one that we're buying and one that we may be retooling a little bit. We still feel like we've got a playoff team here, and we certainly don't want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we've made some moves that may be good for the future but not good for the present.”
The Bruins dropped in the standings thanks to their recent six-game losing streak, but have bounced back with two big wins over the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning in their last two games. Entering Wednesday night, they sat in seventh place – the first wild card spot – in the Eastern Conference in points (49), but were actually 10th (two spots outside the playoffs) in points percentage (.533) once games in hand are accounted for.
Either way, the Bruins are firmly on the playoff bubble seven weeks out from the trade deadline. To some extent, the team will determine its own direction with its play. Play well enough to gain a stronger hold on a playoff spot, and management could be convinced to make an addition or two to try to make a run. Start to slide some more, and Neely and Sweeney may decide it’s time to sell off some pieces and look to the future, even if Neely doesn’t have much of an appetite for that option just yet.
“Right now, I don't really have that appetite,” Neely said. “But like I told our GM and the staff – we have our meetings coming up here in a little bit – that we do have to prepare for two paths. I mean, obviously the one path is that we're buyers and we feel good about our team. But the other path is maybe somewhat of a retool. But we're not focusing on that right now. We're focusing on trying to get our team to be in a better place.”
There has been some speculation about whether Neely and/or Sweeney would be allowed to oversee a retool. Throughout the Jacobs family’s ownership, missing the playoffs has generally spelled the end for general managers, and selling ahead of this trade deadline would likely mean no playoffs this spring. Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs reaffirmed his belief in Neely and Sweeney’s leadership, however.
“I have faith that they'll make the right decisions,” Jacobs said Wednesday. “I don't have the playbook for that. I have faith that they will make those decisions, though. You know, I was thinking about it too, like, Sweens is GM for the 4 Nations Cup, right? So, he's obviously out there watching. He's also a GM for the Olympic team in ‘26 for Team Canada. So, I feel like he's got a pretty good pulse on what's out there in the market in terms of player personnel that might be available to us. And every time I call him, and we speak quite a bit, he's always looking and always shopping. So, I have faith.”
As for whether or not ownership would have any appetite for a retool, Jacobs did not answer directly.
“I mean, I don't know what that looks like,” he said. “Right now, we're in a playoff position. It's difficult for me to say, ‘If we fall out, what if?’ You start playing that game, it gets in the muck and it might get misinterpreted. I feel like we should have faith in the group that's there.”
The player who would perhaps be the most interesting name to monitor in a retool scenario would be Brad Marchand. The 36-year-old captain is a pending free agent who would instantly become one of the most coveted players on the market if he were made available. Marchand and the Bruins hope it doesn’t come to that, but Marchand himself knows as well as anyone that changes will be made if the team falls out of playoff contention.
“I think we're aware of the situation we're in,” Marchand said. “We understand the roads that are in front of us and where they lead. We understand that we haven't performed the way we've needed to, and there's consequences that come with that. There's very high expectations with this organization, and we're expected to perform and do our job and compete every year for a Cup. If we're not going to do that, then changes are going to be made so that the team does compete for a Cup. Our biggest thing, we can't look ahead. It's too hard. There’s too much that can happen between now and then. We have to take it day by day and really focus on putting a good stretch together.”