After helping to construct the roster that came one game short of a Stanley Cup title, Don Sweeney took home some major hardware on Wednesday night, as he was named 2018-19 General Manager of the Year at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas.
Sweeney, closing out his fourth straight season as GM of the Bruins, beat out both St. Louis’ Doug Armstrong and Carolina’s Don Waddell for the accolade.
When it comes to charting the 2018-19 Bruins’ road to success, credit has to be given to Sweeney for locking up key cogs of Boston’s roster to affordable deals. Under Sweeney’s tenure as GM, Boston has inked players like Brad Marchand ($6.125 million), David Pastrnak ($6.66 million), Torey Krug ($5.250 million), Sean Kuraly ($1.275 million) and Matt Grzelcyk ($1.4 million) to contracts that haven't hampered the club when it comes to the cap.
With the foundation of the club already set, Sweeney bolstered Boston’s depth on July 1, 2018, adding a pair of fourth-line mainstays in Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom and an extra body on the blue line in John Moore.
After tallying two goals and seven total points with the Hurricanes in 2017, Nordstrom scored seven goals and chipped in with 12 points over 70 games in Boston this year — adding another three goals and eight points over 23 games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Wagner earned the NESN’s 7th Player Award, given annually to the Bruin who exceeded fan expectations, after tallying a career-high 12 goals and six assists with a team-high 247 hits over 74 games. With Boston’s blue line losing 121 total man-games due to injury, Moore was a key addition, skating in 61 games while scoring four goals and 13 points.
Sweeney put forward arguably his top move on the season
on the same day last July when he signed netminder Jaroslav Halak to a two-year contract with an annual cap hit of $2.75 million. Halak excelled in a backup role, recording a 22-11-4 record with five shutouts, a 2.34 GAA and .922 save percentage this season, allowing Tuukka Rask to record his lightest workload since becoming Boston’s regular starter in net.
Signing college free agents in Karson Kuhlman and Connor Clifton also paid major dividends during the course of a 10-month season, while Boston drafted contributors such as Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo under Sweeney's watch.
Sweeney then geared up Boston for a Cup run in February, swinging a pair of trades to bring in Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson in exchange for Ryan Donato, a 2019 second-round pick, 2019 conditional fifth-round pick and a 2020 fourth-round pick.
Coyle, who is signed through the 2019-20 season, broke through during the postseason, scoring nine goals and seven assists for 16 points while forming a devastating third line with Johansson, who tallied 11 points over 22 playoff bouts while standing as one of the club’s most effective forwards at 5v5 play during both the Eastern Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final.
While Sweeney has not been exempt for miscues (David Backes’ contract, that first round of the 2015 Draft, leaving vacant spots at 3C and 2RW at the start of the season), he drew praise from B’s president Cam Neely on Tuesday for his efforts with keeping Boston’s title window open.
“Well, I think anytime (it’s) your first time at anything there’s some on-the-job learning that has to be done and understanding the personalities of the other general managers is a big part of that, having those relationships, those conversations, and I think the more you do that the more comfortable you feel,” Neely said of Sweeney’s progression as a GM. "You know, I think he’s done a nice job in recognizing our strengths and weaknesses and trying to correct them throughout the year.
“Communication has been a strong suit of Don’s. I think the communications skills with the coach, Don, myself I think are extremely important. You know, not any one person has all the right answers, so I think he’s done a really good job of being collaborative. He certainly puts in the time, puts in the work. He understands our team really well, and he knows players across the league really well.”
While Sweeney left the NHL Awards with a trophy, Patrice Bergeron was not as lucky, as he finished third overall in voting for the Frank J. Selke Trophy — given annually to the best defensive forward.
Bergeron, just a win away from being the first player in NHL history to take home five Selke Trophies, came up short against Blues pivot Ryan O’Reilly, who followed up a Conn Smythe victory less than a week ago with Wednesday’s result.
O’Reilly garnered 1,001 voting points, including 48 first-place votes, to edge second-place right wing Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights (881 voting points). He led the NHL in face-off wins for the second consecutive season (1,086), joining Bergeron (2013-14 through 2016-17) as the only player to post 1,000+ face-off wins in four straight seasons since the statistic was introduced in 1997-98. O’Reilly’s face-off win percentage (56.9%, min. 750) ranked seventh in the NHL. He led the Blues in plus-minus (+22) and topped all St. Louis forwards in average ice time per game (20:46).
Bergeron might have left Vegas empty-handed, but given his track record and reputation as one of the premier two-way forwards in the league, it won't come as much of a surprise if the 33-year-old is back in contention in the summer of 2020.
Here are the full list of winners from Wednesday night:
Hart Trophy: Nikita Kucherov
Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award: Rico Phillips
Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award: Wayne Simmonds
Vezina Trophy: Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jack Adams Award: Barry Trotz
Frank J. Selke Trophy: Ryan O'Reilly
Bill Masterton Trophy: Robin Lehner
James Norris Trophy: Mark Giordano
Ted Lindsay Award: Nikita Kucherov
King Clancy Trophy: Jason Zucker
General Manager of the Year: Don Sweeney
Lady Byng Trophy: Aleksander Barkov
Calder Trophy: Elias Pettersson
The race is on
Barring a shocking dropoff, it seems like a given that Bergeron will once again be in the running for the Selke once again in 2019-20, which would be his ninth straight finalist nod for the award.
Still, while the expectation is for regulars like Bergeron, David Krejci, Tuukka Rask and Brad Marchand to continue to play at their current level next year, Neely was quick to acknowledge that the title window for this Bruins team is a bit shorter than one might expect on a team with so many promising youngsters like David Pastrnak, McAvoy, DeBrusk, Carlo and more.
“I mean, when we hired Don, that was certainly a conversation about how to do we take this core that won in ‘11 and give them another opportunity to win while they’re still somewhat in their prime, and we still look at it that way,” Neely said. “We know, you know, our players are now one year older, and we’re another year removed from winning in ‘11, so we certainly have recognized what we have coming, what we need to have coming, and who – you know, we’re talking pretty big shoes to fill.
“So, we’re certainly aware of that, and we recognize that. We still think they’ve got some good hockey left in them, but we certainly know that it’s winding down, so to speak.”
Bruins preseason schedule announced
The NHL Draft, Development Camp and free agency all remain on the docket over the next couple of weeks, but it’s never too early to look ahead to 2019-20, right?
The Bruins announced their preseason schedule Tuesday afternoon, with the club’s first matchup at TD Garden set for Monday, September 23rd. While Boston will open the preseason with three straight contests on the road, the club will likely take it over another preseason trek to China.
Here’s the full schedule:
- Monday, Sept. 16: Bruins at New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 19: Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 21: Bruins at Chicago Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m.
- Monday, Sept. 23: Flyers vs. Bruins, 7 p.m.
- Wednesday, Sept. 25: Devils vs. Bruins, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 28: Blackhawks vs. Bruins, 3 p.m.