Sweeney will remain Bruins' GM, but Cassidy's status as coach undecided, according to Neely
BOSTON -- Bruins general manager Don Sweeney revealed to the media on Wednesday that his contract expires before next season. Team president Cam Neely said a day later that it won't be the case for long.
As for the head coach? That hasn't been decided yet.
Neely met with the media for his season-ending availability and said early in the session that he would be working out a new contract with Sweeney.
"I started talking with Charlie and [Jeremy] Jacobs after the deadline about extending Don, so that's my plan is to do that," Neely said. "I'm gonna sit down with Don next day or two and hopefully hammer something out."
As for why Sweeney made it this far without a new contract, Neely said, "To be honest, I really wanted to see how the year went. We had a lot of changes last offseason, so I just really wanted to see how that played out. Obviously, you get January, February, March, really good months for us, the team really came together, I thought we had a lot of depth, and I was happy with what he did at the deadline."
As for Bruce Cassidy, Neely sounded as though he'll leave a decision on the head coach in the hands of Sweeney.
"I haven't really talked to Don about it yet," Neely said when asked about the coach's status.
Neely was asked whether he wants Cassidy to remain as head coach, and while he did offer plenty of praise for Cassidy, the answer was noncommittal.
"I think we have to look at some changes as far as how we play and the way we do some of the things," Neely said. "I think Bruce is a fantastic coach. I mean, he's brought a lot of success to this organization. I like him as a coach. So we'll see where it goes. But I do think we need to make some changes, and I think Bruce a couple days ago alluded to that. So we'll see where that goes."
The Bruins have gone 245-108-46 in 399 regular-season games under Cassidy, who took over for the fired Claude Julien midway through the 2016-17 season. They've gone 36-37 in the playoffs under Cassidy, going 6-6 in their 12 series.
Sweeney has been the Bruins' GM for seven seasons, after he had served as assistant GM under Peter Chiarellie for the previous six years.
