Don Sweeney’s first NHL Entry Draft as Bruins general manager came with a rare kind of leverage: three straight first-round picks at 13, 14 and 15 in 2015. It was the kind of setup that could have reshaped the franchise for years. Instead, it became one of the biggest what-ifs in recent Boston Bruins history.
Sweeney used those selections on Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn. Of the three, DeBrusk was the only one who became a meaningful NHL piece for Boston.
He played 465 career games for the Black and Gold, finishing with 138 goals and 128 assists before leaving in free agency to sign with the Vancouver Canucks. Zboril managed 76 NHL games before heading overseas, while Senyshyn appeared in just 14 games for Boston over three seasons, scoring one goal and adding two assists.
He was later traded to the Ottawa Senators and played two games in the 2021-22 season.
The painful part for Bruins fans is how quickly the board turned after Boston’s picks. The names sitting there in the first round afterward were the kind that can change a team’s direction: Mathew Barzal went 16th to the New York Islanders, Kyle Connor 17th to the Winnipeg Jets, Thomas Chabot 18th to the Senators and Brock Boeser 23rd to Vancouver.
That’s what makes the 2015 draft such a lasting stain on Sweeney’s tenure. Boston handed him a golden chance, and the return never matched the opportunity. Looking back now, it’s easy to see how differently things might have unfolded if the Bruins had landed even one of those players who came off the board right after their picks.
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Bruins Face Growing Pressure On Pavel Zacha And Two Young Forwards
Don Sweeney has a handful of contract decisions to sort through as the Bruins head toward the final year of several key deals, and Pavel Zacha sits near the center of that discussion. Boston is weighing whether to commit long term to the versatile center while also looking at younger forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Fraser Minten, a pair whose development makes them part of the organizations broader planning instead of just short-term roster pieces.
The timing matters, too, because the market around young players is starting to move and the Bruins will have to decide how aggressively they want to act before the rules change later this month. A new labor agreement is set to alter how long teams can extend players, which adds another layer of urgency to Bostons talks and raises the stakes on whether the front office chooses to lock in its options now or wait and risk a shorter window to do so. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Quiet Offseason May Not Last Much Longer For Sweeney
The Bruins offseason has been quieter than some around the league, but the market is beginning to heat up in a way that could nudge Boston into action. Around the NHL, teams are locking up younger players to longer deals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins new contract for Ville Koivunen is the latest sign that organizations are trying to get ahead of rising costs before training camp chatter starts to take over.
For Don Sweeney, the clock is part of the backdrop now. Boston still has key business to handle with two forwards eligible for extensions, and there is a limited window to work through it before the summer calendar gets away from him. The Providence Bruins also added some organizational depth with forward Cross Hanas on a one-year AHL contract, while elsewhere in the league the Kings are planning a future celebration for Anze Kopitar. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Could Be Pulled Into A Costly Devils Reunion Push
The Devils reshaping under GM Sunny Mehta has already prompted early looks at how New Jersey might build for 2026-27, and one name that keeps surfacing is a familiar one for both franchises: Pavel Zacha. The idea of a reunion has some logic for New Jersey, which knows the forward well, while Boston has reasons to pay close attention because Zacha has become part of its forward mix and remains the kind of player teams do not casually move.
For the Bruins, the situation carries a built-in layer of tension. Zacha is entering the final year of his contract, which makes him a player contenders will monitor closely and makes Bostons long-term plan around him an issue to watch as the season unfolds. New Jersey may be eyeing potential trade pieces to get a deal done, but until anything actually materializes, the Bruins are left balancing what he means to their present roster against the reality that his future could become a topic well before the year is out. [Read more 🡒]