The Boston Bruins believe they can become a Stanley Cup contender again and that team president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney are the ones to get them there.
They also believe that interim coach Joe Sacco may not be.
"I'm proud to sit alongside to these two gentlemen because I know we have the right people in the right seats on the bus to bring this franchise back to glory," CEO Charlie Jacobs said Wednesday at their end-of-season press conference.
It was a sentiment echoed by Neely when he said, "Don and his group, in my opinion, have earned the right to get us back to where we all want to be."
The Bruins went 33-39-10 this season, finishing second to last in the Eastern Conference and missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
In the process, they fired coach Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19 and then traded captain and franchise mainstay Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers on March 7, along with longtime Bruins Charlie Coyle to the Colorado Avalanche, Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Trent Frederic to the Edmonton Oilers.
It was an admission that they were not good enough, that the mix that Neely and Sweeney had put together was not performing up to their expectations and that a retool of sorts might be in order.
Still, in a nearly hour-long press conference on Wednesday that at times turned testy, the Bruins brass made clear that the hope and the expectation was that their absence from the Stanley Cup Playoffs would not be a long one.
That process starts with finding their next coach.
While Sacco will be a part of the search, according to Sweeney, it seems unlikely that they would stick with him. Under Sacco, the Bruins went 25-30-7, including a nosedive after the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline.
"We've already started that process and knowing who's available and narrowing that down as I go through some checkpoints," Sweeney said. "In terms of hitting the criteria, communication with players nowadays is paramount. Structure, detail and being organized is paramount. You can't [not] have it and survive. I want a coach that's going to evolve a little bit offensively and again, that's part and parcel with being able to communicate with sometimes younger players and their stubbornness or their inexperience."
Outside of David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie, the Bruins struggled to score and finished with 2.71 goals per game, tied with the New York Islanders for 27th in the NHL. They were 29th on the power-play at 15.2 percent.
It was notable that Sweeney mentioned that the next coach of the Bruins should have some familiarity with the NHL, which could put someone like University of Denver coach David Carle out of the running.
"Does it have to include NHL experience on a head coaching level?" Sweeney said. "No … it should include some form of NHL exposure. But if somebody blows you away, they blow you away. I don't think I'm going to narrow it down to just [that]. I think that's an [injustice] to the process.
"The person who comes into this door is going to have success. We're going to set them up for that. We're going to work with them with that. But having NHL experience is part of that. They don't have to be currently an NHL coach, but exposure to the League is important."
One area, outside of a potential new coach, that the Bruins are looking to address next season is their goaltending. While Sweeney said Jeremy Swayman denied that his added workload contributed to a substandard season -- he played 58 games, 14 more than his previous career high -- the Bruins are interested in slightly more balance between Swayman and backup Joonas Korpisalo next season.
Swayman had a 3.11 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage this season.
"We clearly would like him to get back to the level that he's more than capable of getting to," Sweeney said.
For now, the job is Sweeney's and Neely's. But Sweeney has one more year on his contract and there are no assurances that an extension might be forthcoming.
"I've given it a lot of thought, I'm still contemplating what the best course of action is, but as I mentioned, I really feel like Don has done a good job here for the most part," Neely said. "Him and his staff have been very collaborative. I like when I sit in their meetings, how collaborative they are. Obviously, the year that we had is a huge disappointment and that falls on all of us, not just Don. It falls on all of us."
Neely said that "in the near future" he would determine whether he would re-sign Sweeney.
But the first challenge is building a team that can get back to being a Stanley Cup contender.
"I do feel, and we've spoken at great length about this, the team that we currently have, healthy, with the additions we intend to make this summer, I anticipate that we'll have a playoff team and play meaningful hockey at this time of year in 2026," Jacobs said.
