Bruins Promote Sweeney

BOSTON, MA -- Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has promoted Don Sweeney to Assistant General Manager. Sweeney joins Jim Benning as one of the two Assistant General Managers of the club.

Chiarelli and Sweeney will be available to the media Saturday at 6:40 p.m. in the Will McDonough Press Room at the TD Garden, before the Bruins/Blue Jackets contest at 7:00 p.m.

Click here to video of Chiarelli and Sweeney meeting with press to discuss promotion

“Don deserves this promotion,” said Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli. “He is a very diligent person who truly cares about the welfare and development of the player both from the personal and professional perspective. In his three years as part of our management group, he has shown tremendous passion, a growing aptitude for the business side of hockey and most importantly the willingness and enjoyment of being part of a management team and learning from others like Jim Benning and Scott Bradley. I believe in this business model with two assistant GMs because of the ever increasing intricacies of this business and the good chemistry between those in our group. Jim, Don and Scott will all continue to have specific duties and responsibilities, and I will continue to rely heavily on all three individuals.”

2009-10 will be Sweeney’s fourth season in the Bruins front office. He joined Chiarelli’s staff in June, 2006 as the team’s Director of Player Development and added the position of Director of Hockey Operations to his portfolio in July, 2007. He oversees the development of the team’s drafted prospects at the AHL, junior hockey, college and European levels in addition to having a supervisory role in the day-to-day operations of the hockey department.

Sweeney organized and ran the team’s first off-season Development Camp in July, 2007, bringing the club’s top prospects to Boston in advance of the main September training camp. Development camp gives the prospects the opportunity to get to know each other on and off the ice while teaching them the level of dedication and training necessary for them to reach the next stage of their careers. The Development Camp is now an annual event, with the third such camp held this past July.

Drafted by the Bruins as their eighth pick, 166th overall, in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, he went on to play four seasons of college hockey at Harvard University. He earned both NCAA East All-American and ECAC First Team All-Star honors with the Crimson and played in the 1986 NCAA Finals before graduating with a degree in Economics.

The defenseman played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League, including 15 in a Bruins uniform. He is one of just two defensemen and four players in team history to play over 1,000 games in a Boston sweater and he still ranks third on the team’s all-time games played list. He also ranks in the top ten of the club’s all-time lists in career goals, assists and points by a defenseman. He played his final NHL season with the Dallas Stars in 2003-04.