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After nine seasons with the club, the Boston Bruins have fired general manager Peter Chiarelli.
"We are grateful for Peter's service to the Bruins organization over the last nine seasons," B’s President Cam Neely said through a statement this morning. "His efforts undoubtedly helped the team achieve great success during his tenure and he helped restore the proud tradition of Boston Bruins hockey. We ultimately feel that this change is necessary in order to ensure sustainable success for the club both in the short term and the long term. Our search for a new GM will begin immediately."
The Bruins’ search for their next general manager will be headed by CEO Charlie Jacobs and Neely, while the club also confirmed that their assistant general manager (Don Sweeney), player personnel department, and coaching staff will remain in place at this time.
In Chiarelli’s nine seasons with the Bruins, the Black and Gold made the playoffs seven years in a row from 2008 to 2014, made the Stanley Cup Finals twice (including a win in 2011), and reached the 100-point plateau one times. In total, the Bruins were 386-233-85 with Chiarelli at the helm.
The writing was on the wall when it came to Chiarelli’s status within days of the B’s failing to make the postseason, and Chiarelli seemed like a dead man walking following Jacobs’ early January press conference that put everybody in the organization on notice for what he deemed an ‘unacceptable’ year.
During his nine-year tenure in the Hub, Chiarelli made a total of 63 trades -- including monster deals that sent Phil Kessel to Toronto for three draft picks and a 2013 trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars as part of a seven-player swap -- but his biggest move will always come back to 2006’s free agent signing of 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara. Bringing Chara to Boston from Ottawa was arguably this franchise’s greatest move ever, and perhaps even the best free agent signing in NHL history, and gave the Black and Gold an identity that brought meaningful hockey back to this city.
Assistant general manager Sweeney, who was interview by the Washington Capitals for their general manager vacancy last summer, seems like the early favorite to replace Chiarelli.
Jacobs and Neely will hold a 3 p.m. press conference at TD Garden to discuss the move.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com