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The Boston Bruins have found a DeLorean.
Still in search of their next general manager, owner Jeremy Jacobs has made the call to the 82-year-old Harry Sinden, a senior advisor to the club for the past decade or so, reportedly giving the former front office head a larger role with the Black and Gold, and adding another voice to a search that’s been led by team president Cam Neely and CEO Charlie Jacobs.
From the Boston Herald:
And according to a well-informed NHL source, team owner Jeremy Jacobs, concerned that both son Charlie and Neely lack experience running an NHL franchise, also has asked the 82-year-old Sinden to play a larger role than in recent years.Sinden might be involved in the selection of the new GM. That, of course, is widely expected to be assistant GM Don Sweeney.
The team also has interest in New York Rangers assistant GM Jeff Gorton, who previously was with the Bruins as assistant and acting GM. Gorton, however, is under contract and might not be made available by Rangers boss Glen Sather. He also is reportedly being pursued by Toronto. The senior Jacobs wants Sinden involved, and he likely will help vet and interview candidates, though the extent of his role is unknown.
“I think (Jacobs) just wanted someone to be a sounding board and an adviser,… the source said.
It’s another voice in the room, of course, and that’s rarely a bad thing. But this franchise is honestly teetering towards progressive and regressive and it’s gotta be truly terrifying for fans in the Hub.
Sinden’s role with the Bruins over the last ten years has been that of an alumni, really. He comes to the games in Boston sometimes, eats dinner with his old friends, watches the game from a suite, and goes home. (Honestly, it’s not the worst life.) He’s not really involved in the day to day operations -- or even the bigger picture operations -- of the club. And there’s a reason for that. He’s literally in his 80s, and the game has changed drastically since the days of letting Dmitri Khristich walk via arbitration.
If this new three-headed braintrust screws the franchise up for years to come with their GM search that focuses on qualities no longer important to today’s game -- although all signs point to assistant general manager of five years Don Sweeney to eventually getting the job -- then you couldn’t help but wonder why a guy removed from the game for as long as Sinden was brought in as a voice.
Sinden’s track record is pretty incredible, of course. But that was in the 70s. For me, this would be akin to seriously considering what Don Cherry had to say on the idea of firing head coach Claude Julien and moving forward with his advice. Hell, maybe Cherry’s in the running for Julien’s job now that Sinden’s back in the front office picture. And maybe they can sign Rick Middleton back, too.
It’s too easy to pile-on the Black and Gold at this point, really. But going backwards with personnel to move forward rarely ever works out. And this is a delicate franchise right now.
The ‘Old Boys’ Club’ method has never really worked out, as you the Edmonton Oilers wish they could have explained to you five years ago. (In all of this, there’s a tremendously ironic story to be written given the fact that Peter Chiarelli was fired from Boston and went to the Edmonton Oilers in the Oilers’ effort to shed their ‘Old Boys’ Club’ image while the Bruins slowly morph into one.)
‘Expanding’ is a broad term, too. If it means he’s asking one or two questions that Jacobs or Neely didn’t think of asking in the interview process, then great, that’s a win. But if this means that an 82-year-old Sinden is going to have more say in terms of the roster that’s built in Boston in pursuit of getting this team ‘back on track’ after missing the postseason for the first time since 2007, then holy hell, I don’t know what to expect from this team moving forward. And I’m not sure I’d want to know, really.
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