The Boston Bruins, led by new GM Don Sweeney, did a lot of work just prior to and during the 2015 NHL Draft. Gone are Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. In are Martin Jones, Collin Miller and a whole plethora of NHL neophytes.
In short, Sweeney and Bruins team president Cam Neely made significant progress on their path to reshaping the Boston roster in a more ideal image - just don't make the mistake of thinking the work they've already done means they're finished.
"We're not done yet," said one B's front office staffer, via Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald. Per Harris, the unnamed Bruins staffer promise the team will "work hard" to trade for some much-needed proven NHL talent in the coming days.
Sportnet's Elliotte Friedman echoed a similar sentiment as far as Sweeney and the Bruins are concerned - "hard to believe the Bruins are done," Friedman wrote in his most-recent 30 Thoughts column - and wondered at what the moves during the NHL draft can tell us about the new Boston GMs operating procedure.
"I'm more curious about practical analysis, as in, what does this tell us about the new regime? One GM compared it to 'Harry Sinden running the team again.' What he meant was Hamilton and Milan Lucic made contract asks the Bruins didn't like, and rather than doing much negotiating, pulled the trigger," writes Friedman.
"To be fair, Don Sweeney was up against a July 1 offer sheet possibility, although not with Lucic."
While Sweeney may have been up against a more pressing clock with Hamilton, he still faced something of a time crunch with Lucic as well. The now 27-year-old power forward is set to enter the final year of his deal - it was now or never on moving Lucic and getting a significant return and being able to utilize whatever assets came back in as expedient a manner as possible meant doing the deal ahead of the draft's first-round.
With Lucic and Hamilton gone, the Bruins certainly have some holes in their lineup. Re-signing veteran defenseman Adam McQuaid was a step, but it seems likely more trades are on the not-too-distant horizon.
