Cam Neely Weighs In On Bruins Possibly ‘Retooling’ At Trade Deadline

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have been somewhat of a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” team this season.

From game to game, everyone, from the front office to the fans, is unsure which team will show up. A fact Bruins president Cam Neely finds unacceptable.

“Obviously, we’re not happy with where we’ve been at and how we’ve been playing,” Neely said before the Black and Gold Gala at the Fairmont Copley Plaza on Wednesday night. “From training camp, I think we can go back to that, but I like how we’re playing a lot better defensively.

“We can point to the power play. We can point to some of the players that are having down years, which you don’t expect, but we’re not happy with where we’ve been this year, that’s for sure.”

Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs echoed Neely’s thoughts on where the team is through the first 46 games of the season.

“I feel everyone’s frustration. And I hear it, too. But I also feel it. Like our fan base, I’m also a fan. I support this team,” Jacobs said. “I believe in our leadership. I know that’s been called into question quite a bit recently.”

Neely and general manager Don Sweeney built the 2024-25 roster with legitimate expectations that the Bruins would be chasing the Stanley Cup. Midway through the season, at 22-19-5 overall, Neely admitted the franchise might approach the trade deadline differently than it has over the last few seasons.

“We’ve got to look at two paths,” Neely said. “One that we’re buying. One that we may be retooling a little bit. We still feel like we’ve got a playoff team here. We certainly don’t want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we made some moves that may be good for the future but not good for the present.”

The Bruins currently hold the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but with six or fewer points separating them from the teams chasing them, the Black and Gold could be outside the playoff bubble by the time the March 7 trade deadline approaches.

“We’ve got to be smart,” Neely said about proceeding as full-fledged buyers. “If you do it again, you’ve got to know that you’re a team that has a good chance to have a deep run. You don’t want to go all-in and then not really feel confident that you’re going to have a deep run.”

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Neely added: “This year has been a little frustrating because we honestly felt that coming out of the offseason, we had a better team than what we’ve shown on the ice. Maybe that’s the product of us overvaluing what we have. Or just the start we had was not expected.”

Boston has won its last two games, both against Atlantic Division rivals and teams ahead of them in the standings: the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. However, the Bruins still need to play more consistently to string together more wins.

“I hope we can build off the last two games,” Jacobs said. “I feel like our team, in my opinion, has yet to play its best games yet. I feel like we’ve got it in our system. We’ve got it in our room. Our hope is that we can find it.”