Harry Sinden hasn’t been a general manager in the NHL in some time but his involvement in the club’s hockey operations has grown slightly during Don Sweeney’s tenure.
Saturday, he held a state of the Bruins in speaking with Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe.
Addressing the Dougie Hamilton trade, Sinden lauded Sweeney for his efforts during the first month on the job.
“He had guts. He had guts to do it,” he said. “He could have signed him, then figured out some way to make us meet the salary cap. I don’t know what would have happened. I shouldn’t say it this way, but I don’t think I could have done it any better than that.”
Sinden is now a senior advisor to the owner, and was the team’s general manager from 1972-2000. He held some sway over the hiring of Sweeney who has included him in hockey operations more than his predecessor Peter Chiarelli.
Sinden drafted Sweeney in 1984 and traded for Neely in 1986.
“To see them come here and do so well as players, and then move into the management of this team and run this whole operation, I’ve got to feel good about it,” Sinden said.
Boston’s up and down performance this year, the aging Zdeno Chara, and the struggles of Tuukka Rask have been cause for concern for one of the premiere organizations of the last six seasons.
“It’s not quite a real contender at the moment,” Sinden said. “But it’s shown signs that it can move into that second level of contention. As we all know, there’s nothing like the Stanley Cup playoffs for upsets. There’s just nothing like it. Eighth seeds win sometimes. I think we’re on the edge of that. We’ve shown improvement. We’re showing signs of playing offensively, which I wasn’t sure we were going to show.”
But making changes is tougher than ever, certainly more so than when Sinden was at the helm. The obstacles facing a GM who wants to make a trade are numerous and baffling to the 83-year-old.
“It’s really hard. Really hard,” Sinden said. “I don’t know how you do it today. I don’t know how they do it. Trades in November? That was a good month to make trades. Nobody does that anymore. The salary cap makes you think before you do anything.”
