Claude Julien Staying as Coach
- Thread starter cshea
- Start date
Because someone will ask, here's the link to presser:
http://nesn.com/2016/04/watch-claude-julien-don-sweeney-bruins-press-conference-online-live-stream/
http://nesn.com/2016/04/watch-claude-julien-don-sweeney-bruins-press-conference-online-live-stream/
Here's the full letter if ya want to read it...
Dear Season Ticket Holders,
Like all of you, I am extremely disappointed with the outcome of this season. We set high expectations for ourselves, and we certainly realize that you as fans share the same set of high expectations. It is our responsibility to ice a Team that you are proud to support and one that contends for the Stanley Cup year in and year out. I fully understand that we did not meet these expectations this year and let you all down in the process.
There are a number of important matters to address this offseason, and I wanted to communicate our strategy surrounding a few of these matters directly to you. All of the respective decisions will be made with a singular objective in mind: to improve our club in both the short term and the long term.
The first involves our head coach. Claude Julien is our head coach and will be our head coach when we return to action in the fall. Claude's record as the winningest coach in Bruins' history speaks for itself, and he is fully committed to leading the Team back to being a Stanley Cup contender. We recognize there are areas of our game and our roster that need to be improved, and we firmly believe that Claude gives us the best chance at on-ice success in both the near and long term. We are confident in Claude's ability to continue to make the necessary game adjustments while we work to develop players and re-shape our roster.
One of our objectives last year was to improve our salary cap situation, and through various trades and signings, we were able to accomplish this. We now have some cap flexibility heading into the offseason and this summer's free agency planning period. This will allow us to re-sign players or make competitive offers to free agents on the market that we believe will help our club.
Adding and developing young talent in our prospect pool was another key objective heading into last season, and I am very pleased with the progress we have made in this area. We recently signed four highly regarded players from the NCAA ranks, three of whom we drafted (Danton Heinen from the University of Denver, Matt Grzelyck from Boston University and Rob O'Gara from Yale University) and one player which we acquired via trade (Sean Kuraly from Miami University). We have also signed five of our draft picks from the 2015 Draft in Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk, Jeremy Lauzon, Zach Senyshyn and Jakub Zboril.
Along with our 2015 Draft class, the depth of our organization as a whole looks very promising. We expect to continue this positive trend in June at this year's draft, with our two additional first round picks and six overall selections.
I fully understand the discontent associated with another long offseason! While no one in the organization is happy about that, we will utilize this time to properly evaluate all aspects of our organization, continue to address areas we need to improve, and take all of the necessary steps to build a successful Team for next year and beyond.
I want to thank you for your continued commitment to the Bruins as we count the days until October when the Team skates back onto the ice to better represent your passion as loyal fans!
All the best,
Don Sweeney
General Manager, Boston Bruins
Like all of you, I am extremely disappointed with the outcome of this season. We set high expectations for ourselves, and we certainly realize that you as fans share the same set of high expectations. It is our responsibility to ice a Team that you are proud to support and one that contends for the Stanley Cup year in and year out. I fully understand that we did not meet these expectations this year and let you all down in the process.
There are a number of important matters to address this offseason, and I wanted to communicate our strategy surrounding a few of these matters directly to you. All of the respective decisions will be made with a singular objective in mind: to improve our club in both the short term and the long term.
The first involves our head coach. Claude Julien is our head coach and will be our head coach when we return to action in the fall. Claude's record as the winningest coach in Bruins' history speaks for itself, and he is fully committed to leading the Team back to being a Stanley Cup contender. We recognize there are areas of our game and our roster that need to be improved, and we firmly believe that Claude gives us the best chance at on-ice success in both the near and long term. We are confident in Claude's ability to continue to make the necessary game adjustments while we work to develop players and re-shape our roster.
One of our objectives last year was to improve our salary cap situation, and through various trades and signings, we were able to accomplish this. We now have some cap flexibility heading into the offseason and this summer's free agency planning period. This will allow us to re-sign players or make competitive offers to free agents on the market that we believe will help our club.
Adding and developing young talent in our prospect pool was another key objective heading into last season, and I am very pleased with the progress we have made in this area. We recently signed four highly regarded players from the NCAA ranks, three of whom we drafted (Danton Heinen from the University of Denver, Matt Grzelyck from Boston University and Rob O'Gara from Yale University) and one player which we acquired via trade (Sean Kuraly from Miami University). We have also signed five of our draft picks from the 2015 Draft in Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk, Jeremy Lauzon, Zach Senyshyn and Jakub Zboril.
Along with our 2015 Draft class, the depth of our organization as a whole looks very promising. We expect to continue this positive trend in June at this year's draft, with our two additional first round picks and six overall selections.
I fully understand the discontent associated with another long offseason! While no one in the organization is happy about that, we will utilize this time to properly evaluate all aspects of our organization, continue to address areas we need to improve, and take all of the necessary steps to build a successful Team for next year and beyond.
I want to thank you for your continued commitment to the Bruins as we count the days until October when the Team skates back onto the ice to better represent your passion as loyal fans!
All the best,
Don Sweeney
General Manager, Boston Bruins
I'm glad they got out ahead of this instead of dragging it on like they did last year. Lesson learned hopefully.
My thoughts exactly. This is actually two good things in one: the fact that they recognized they gave the man absolutely nothing to work with on the blue line, and that they left his ass in the wind for way too long last year. IIRC, they didn't confirm his status until the only opening left was Detroit's, which everyone knew was promised to Blashill.
Did Don say all assistants (with the exception of Essensa) gone? The comment wasn't entirely clear.
Hilarious auto correct for Haggs
Joe HaggertyVerified account@HackswithHaggs
Don Sweeney says Claude Julien "absolutely" will be back as coach. Doug Gouda won't return & other assistants' deals are up except Essensa
Joe HaggertyVerified account@HackswithHaggs
Don Sweeney says Claude Julien "absolutely" will be back as coach. Doug Gouda won't return & other assistants' deals are up except Essensa
just that they don't have contracts and will be looking at them. Houda only confirmed gone so far.
He said Essensa is the only one under contract. It was kind of weird. They said Houda is out, but no word on the rest.
This is good.
Now just get some actual players for him to coach and maybe they can turn this thing around.
Now just get some actual players for him to coach and maybe they can turn this thing around.
He was just asked that
"primarily he has to be comfortable with the staff"
"confident he's getting the information disseminated to players correctly and practices are run correctly"
"ultimately Claude will have that decision"
That's it, I'm out.Apparently they will 'work to find common ground' to bring Kevan Miller back
Bruins Daily @BruinsDaily 13m13 minutes ago
"I don't believe that we need a major overhaul." - Don Sweeney about the state of the franchise.
Bruins Daily @BruinsDaily 8m8 minutes ago
"It's on me to improve this roster." - Sweeney.
These two statements don't make sense. Has he seen the state of the blue line?
"I don't believe that we need a major overhaul." - Don Sweeney about the state of the franchise.
Bruins Daily @BruinsDaily 8m8 minutes ago
"It's on me to improve this roster." - Sweeney.
These two statements don't make sense. Has he seen the state of the blue line?
[emoji102]Apparently they will 'work to find common ground' to bring Kevan Miller back
Miller as a 6th or 7th D is fine, IMO. Get him out of the a top 4 spot and he is more than serviceable.
Pleasantly surprised, really thought this was going to be Tito redux. There is a small part of me that wonders if the decision would be different if Claude's most likely landing spots weren't Ottawa and Montreal, but the bottom line is that the Bruins are keeping an excellent coach and that's a win.
I sort of agree with Sweeney.
I posted this somewhere else in the middle of the season, but Kevan Miller was asked to do a job he was not quite equipped or ready for and did an ok job at it. Sure he had his fuck ups, but for the most part was serviceable in a spot he never should have been put in. The experience was valuable and I think he could be a really good 5/6 defenseman going forward.
Now, I'm not defending him if Sweeney goes and signs him to a McQuaid contract.
I posted this somewhere else in the middle of the season, but Kevan Miller was asked to do a job he was not quite equipped or ready for and did an ok job at it. Sure he had his fuck ups, but for the most part was serviceable in a spot he never should have been put in. The experience was valuable and I think he could be a really good 5/6 defenseman going forward.
Now, I'm not defending him if Sweeney goes and signs him to a McQuaid contract.
This is very fair. As a 5/6 guy Miller is fine. If they see him as anything more than that then they're kidding themselves.
I'd be fine with them bringing Miller back, with a prerequisite being that they find a taker for McQuaid and KMiller makes ~$1m or less. Having them on the same roster is incredibly redundant.
To be honest, despite all the shit I gave KMiller this year, I think he can be better than McQuaid moving forward - they just both need to be limited to bottom pair minutes.
This year they were at 19:03 (KM) and 18:02 (AM) respectively - if Sweeney doesn't think those both need to come down, I've gotta really begin questioning his talent evaluation skills.
To be honest, despite all the shit I gave KMiller this year, I think he can be better than McQuaid moving forward - they just both need to be limited to bottom pair minutes.
This year they were at 19:03 (KM) and 18:02 (AM) respectively - if Sweeney doesn't think those both need to come down, I've gotta really begin questioning his talent evaluation skills.
I look at K Miller as filling the Shane Hnidy role as the 6th / 7th defenseman. Good guy to spot start and give 15-16 minutes against tough physical teams. That said, I would not be shocked to see him get $2.5-$3.0 million on the open market as a UFA which should price him out of the Bruins plans.
Hell, even I started to come around on Miller late in the year. He definitely improved as the year went on and I'm with the rest - if they can sign him cheap and stick him as a 5/6/7 guy then sold, I'm in. If they want and pay him as a 2/3 then God help us because this team will not be good.
For all the shit Miller took, he was probably better than McQuaid this past season... McQuaid was not good.
Glad Claude is staying. He would have immediately made Ottawa or Montreal better teams going forward. It's on Sweeney to upgrade the D with better talent and not waste many more of the Bergeron years.
This is where I am at. Kevan Miller was much better at the end of the season but he still sucked. That's fine, your 6/7th D usually sucks. Hnidy sucked. There just aren't enough good D to have a great 6/7th D man. The problem is there is zero reason to have both him and McQuaid on the same roster. If they don't see that, I don't expect them to make the kind of upgrades to the D that we all believe they really need.
