BOSTON (AP) – The Bruins made longtime defenseman Don Sweeney the general manager on Wednesday, replacing fired GM Peter Chiarelli with his former assistant and Harvard teammate.
Sweeney has spent the past six seasons as the assistant GM to Chiarelli, who was fired last month after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years and four years after a Stanley Cup championship. Sweeney played for the Bruins for the first 15 of his 16 years in the NHL.
“I am both excited and humbled for the opportunity,” Sweeney said in thanking ownership and Bruins president Cam Neely “for bestowing the confidence and trust in me to direct this historic franchise in which I have been a part of for 24 years.”
An eighth-round draft pick in 1984, Sweeny played four years at Harvard, graduating one year after Chiarelli. He played in Boston from 1988-2004 and still ranks third on the team’s games played list.
He also ranks in the top ten of the club’s all-time lists for goals, assists and points by a defenseman.