BOSTON — It has been nearly five years since the Boston Bruins last reached the Stanley Cup Finals. Despite going all the way to Game 7 in 2019, the Bruins fell short of capturing their seventh championship.
In the five seasons since, Boston has made the playoffs every time but failed to advance beyond the second round. While stagnating progress in an organization’s trajectory often leads to change on the management side, Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs stood behind his top brass and believes the people in the building are the ones who can get the team over the hump.
“They have my utmost confidence,” Jacobs said during Wednesday’s end-of-season press conference. “I feel like we haven’t necessarily found our ceiling yet in terms of the opportunity of this team. I believe in them to find that ceiling and hence, they have my confidence, and therefore no change. I don’t foresee a change in these personnel for this upcoming season.”
The personnel in question, of course, are Bruins President Cam Neely, general manager Don Sweeney and coach Jim Montgomery. While the former two were in their positions during Boston’s 2019 run to the Finals, Montgomery just completed his second season after taking over for Bruce Cassidy in 2022. Neely has been team president since 2010, while Sweeney was elevated to his position in 2015.
As far as other personnel go, Jacobs said he is leaving those decisions to Neely, Sweeney and Montgomery. For the coaching staff, Montgomery had a similar answer to Jacobs.
“We haven’t finished all of our revision of last year, but as it stands right now, there is no imminent changes in our mind,” Montgomery said.
Barring a change in plans, it appears the Bruins will be running it back with the same people on the operations/management side. With over $20 million in cap space this offseason and several key impending free agents slated to depart the roster, the Bruins’ brass will have plenty of room to make changes and try to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2025.
