Just prior to the Bruins’ final preseason game on Saturday night, GM Peter Chiarelli promoted Don Sweeney to assistant general manager. Sweeney previously held the position of director of player development and hockey operations , and will now share the duties of assistant GM with Jim Benning, who is entering his third season in that position.
“Don deserves this promotion,” Chiarelli said. “He is a very diligent person who truly cares about the welfare and development of the player both from the personal and professional perspective. In his three years as part of our management group, he has shown tremendous passion, a growing aptitude for the business side of hockey and, most importantly, the willingness and enjoyment of being part of a management team and learning from others like Jim Benning and Scott Bradley.
“I believe in this business model with two assistant GMs because of the ever-increasing intricacies of this business and the good chemistry between those in our group. Jim, Don and Scott will all continue to have specific duties and responsibilities, and I will continue to rely heavily on all three individuals.”
Head coach Claude Julien had similar praise for Sweeney.
“I’m really happy for him, and honestly as Peter [Chiarelli] mentioned, he’s a hard worker, he’s on top of everything and to me, it’s well deserved,” Julien said. “Obviously, when I heard the news, I was really happy for him, and he’s just been so well with all of us, and just his commitment and pride to doing the job right is the kind of guy you want around you.”
Sweeney, 43, is entering his fourth season in the Bruins’ front office. He joined Chiarelli’s staff as the team’s director of player development in June of 2006. In July 2007, he added the position of director of hockey operations to his portfolio. He oversees the development of the team’s drafted prospects at the AHL, junior hockey, college and European levels in addition to having a supervising role in the day-to-day operations of the hockey department.
But one of the keys to Sweeney’s quick assent through the ranks of management — and the reason Chiarelli values him so much — is Sweeney’s desire to help young prospects acclimate themselves and adapt to the pro levels of hockey.
Sweeney created and organized the team’s first developmental camp for prospects, which helps young players come in and familiarize themselves with each other and the Bruins' organizational systems. Players such as Milan Lucic and Blake Wheeler, who both made the Bruins out of training camp after attending developmental camp, credit that experience for their early success and easing the transition through the regular training camp.
In fact, rookie forward Zach Hamill decided to go through the developmental camp one more time this summer, despite playing a season in the AHL last season. The decision has paid off for Hamill, who’s had a very solid training camp and, as of Saturday night, was still on the bubble to make the NHL roster.
“I still think that was a great decision by me, and I’m happy I did that,” Hamill said recently. “That just reaffirmed what I had learned last camp and showed me I was used to the system here and ready.”
Hamill is an example of why Sweeney believed in this camp and the reason he is now an assistant GM with the team for which he played 15 of his 16 seasons in the NHL.
After being promoted, Sweeney reflected on his last NHL season, when he roomed with a rookie. That is when he knew he wanted to get into management and/or coaching, and when he realized how important the transition is for players. He saw firsthand how a young player paying his dues could benefit from someone taking the time to show him the ropes.
“All those experiences certainly helped it,” Sweeney said of the track he took to the NHL. “I’ll reference my year in Dallas (2003-04) as well — rooming with a younger player and realizing that was a little bit more of a development role. My career was winding down at that point, so when I had the opportunity to go down to Providence and work with our younger guys at our development camp, I can draw from those experiences having gone through it, having made that drive down [Route] 95.”
According to Chiarelli, this move is just another step toward his goal of building a Stanley Cup-caliber brain trust. Sweeney will still maintain many of his previous responsibilities, but as Chiarelli pointed out, each member of the Bruins’ brass takes on a variety of roles on a regular basis.
“We, as a group, make every decision both in a business and hockey operations aspect,” he said. “Donny will still be doing what he was doing. We’ve evolved as a group, and we’ll still work as a group. I ask these guys to all do everything, and they do everything that I ask them. They’re all very capable and very good executives.”
