Bleacher Reports swings and misses on Boston Bruins trade deadline grade This was a rather low grade, if we’re being honest.
When the dust settled at the trade deadline, Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney did what he had to do. He traded some players, some key ones at that, and began what has been avoided for a little while, a rest, or retool, whichever you prefer to call it.
It had to be done. Things were not working anymore and changes needed to be made. This may not be the last of the moves as thre could be other pieces to drop this off-season when Sweeney attempts to build a roster for the 2025-26 season that would be competitive to get back into the postseason.
No matter what Sweeney does, he’ll never do much right in the eyes of Bruins fans, but this needed to be done. The returns for the most part were good and worth the trade. We handed out Sweeney a grade and so did Bleacher Report, but there were two different grades.
Bleacher Report swings and misses on Don Sweeney’s 2025 trade deadline grade
When you break down all the trades and players that left, Trent Frederic, Max Jones, Justin Brazeau, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, and Brad Marchand, some of them needed to be moved to help with the long overdue retool. Are all the returns going to be worth it? No, they rarely are, but some were well worth it.
The Bruins had a championship window and now it’s closed. Even Marchand admitted that. Two years ago, when they set the NHL record for wins and points in a season, Sweeney went all-in at the trade deadline acquiring Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals and Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings, only to come up short in a stunning first-round exit against the Panthers after blowing a 3-1 series lead. Right then and there when Florida scored in the final minute of regulation to tie the game, then win it in overtime, you knew that the door was closed shut.
What Sweeney did was the right thing and was needed at the trade deadline. Now he’s tasked with a retool that he needs to get right after botching last off-season. If he doesn’t, he could find himself out of a job sooner rather than later. This trade deadline was different for the Black and Gold, who were sellers rather than buyers, and it’s not a position that they’re used to. However, Sweeney got it right and a B- is just way too low of a grade for the current situation they are in.