The Boston Bruins are running out of ‘options’ when it comes to their vacant general manager job.

Ray Shero, the former Pittsburgh Penguins general manager whom the B’s reportedly interviewed last week, is now with the New Jersey Devils. And the New York Rangers, still playing meaningful second-round hockey in search of their first Stanley Cup in 21 years, have not yet given assistant general manager Jeff Gorton permission to talk to the Bruins or anyone else for that matter. And New York general manager Glen Sather isn’t sure he’ll let that happen even when their season’s done, for what it’s worth. But I’m not sure that it matters much in the grand scheme of things for B’s CEO Charlie Jacobs and president Cam Neely, really.

Current assistant general manager Don Sweeney is their guy. You can’t help but feel as if you’re just waiting for confirmation. Interviewing other candidates is merely the Black and Gold doing their due diligence, but from everything heard and read, this is Sweeney’s future gig.

And that comes back to the B’s realizing what they have. Or would they could lose, rather.

Sweeney had an interview with the Washington Capitals for their then-vacant GM job last summer, and while Sweeney ultimately failed to land the gig, it’s clear that his name and resume is out there for interested teams. And I don’t think that the Bruins -- on the heels of departing from Peter Chiarelli, who whether you wanna admit it or not, had more hits than misses in terms of personnel success in his nine-year tenure in Boston -- want to chance losing another NHL-caliber front office asset.

But is that the proper framework to get the B’s ‘back on track’ after missing the postseason for the first time since 2007? It’s tough to argue against it, really. Like we’ve talked about since the final horn sounded on the 2014-15 Bruins, I don’t think that ‘blowing it up’ is the proper way to fix their issues.

They finished with the most points by a non-playoff team in league history, and they need tweaks, not a nuke, to make things brighter skating into next season. Sweeney, a guy with familiarity with the club and what it takes to be a successful franchise in the Hub, would be the guy for that job.

Sweeney’s would-be hiring wouldn’t come without a bit of controversy or doubt, though. Some, a large majority even, would feel that Sweeney’s promotion would be a case of Neely hiring his yes-man. Neely has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be a control freak. But the breakdown between Chiarelli and the Bruins did seem to have a control element to it, especially towards the end. That theory in play, right or wrong, would put Sweeney in a situation where he’d constantly be under criticism as to whether or not ______ was truly his idea and not just Neely building the team in his image.

Then again, that’s something that any incoming GM is going to have to deal with.

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