Don Sweeney’s contract status, ownership’s endorsement of leadership, and other takeaways on the Bruins - The Boston Globe (2025)

Along with the start of the latest head-coaching search, the top brass touched on several other topics following a disastrous season.

Here are several takeaways:

⋅ Sticking with management: Jacobs said he is confident Sweeney and Neely are the right men to retrofit an ill-constructed roster that sputtered in several critical areas in 2024-25.

“Cam and Don in their respective roles as president and general manager have proven that they can take a franchise that has missed the playoffs and build one for sustained success,” Jacobs said. “It is my opinion that we can do it again, and this time, get over the hump and become a Stanley Cup champion.”

⋅ Sweeney’s uncertain contract status: Despite Jacobs’s endorsement, there is a lack of clarity regarding Sweeney’s long-term future. Sweeney, who replaced Peter Chiarelli as GM in May 2015, confirmed that his contract is currently set to expire after the 2025-26 season. Neely remained noncommittal when asked if he intended to craft a new long-term extension for his GM.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’m still contemplating what the best course of action is, but as I mentioned, I really feel like Don has done a good job here for the most part,” Neely said. “Obviously the year that we had is a huge disappointment, and that falls on all of us — not just Don, that falls on all of us. I’ll figure that out in the near future whether we’re going to re-sign Don or not. But he’s got another year.”

⋅ Offseason priorities: Sweeney and Co. will be busy this summer retooling a roster that ranked 24th or worse this season in goals per game (27th, 2.71), goals allowed per game (26th, 3.30), power play (29th, 15.2 percent), and penalty kill (24th, 76.3 percent).

The top priority? Adding firepower beyond David Pastrnak (106 points).

“We have to find, through the development of our current players, some extra scoring potential,” Sweeney said. “And we have to probably address the wing positions that will deepen the scoring ability that showed up ineffectively this year in the way the roster was built.

“We didn’t score enough … Our power play was dormant for most of the season, and we didn’t defend with the structure and conviction that we have in years past.”

⋅ Season-ticket pricing increase remains intact: Season ticket-holders are staring at a price increase of 4 percent across all levels for next season. That follows a ticket hike last season of 9 percent.

Jacobs was asked if there was any consideration to rescind that price increase, given the product on the ice.

“Ticket pricing is a sensitive subject. I’m aware of that,” he said. “Things cost more … I expect that you probably pay [a] higher electric bill than you did last year. I know that we, for instance, pay more to open our building for security, for ushers, for concession workers, for parking attendants, everything.

“People deserve a raise and an increase. Likewise, we increase our ticket prices as our expenses go. I mentioned this before, every dollar we bring in, 50 percent goes to the players. We share it … So we’ve made our decision. We’ve raised our ticket prices, and no, we will not be rescinding that.”

⋅ Expectations for next season: Jacobs stressed that management feels the team could be back in the playoff picture as soon as next spring.

“If Cam and Don came to me and said, ‘Listen, we do think we have a path toward a championship team, but we need patience.’ Of course, we can be patient,” Jacobs said. “I do feel, though, and we’ve spoken at great length about this. The team that we currently have — healthy — with the additions we intend to make this summer, I anticipate that we will have a playoff team and play meaningful hockey at this time of year in 2026.”

⋅ Loose pucks: The Bruins are expecting stronger returns from last year’s top free agent pickups, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, next season.

“Do we expect both of them to get better and impact our team? Absolutely,” Sweeney said of the duo, who will cost a combined $12.75 million against the cap through the 2029-30 season. “[Return on investment] for it? Yeah, it’s got to go up. Ultimately, when you integrate those guys in there, you want immediate impact for certain.”

A bounce-back season from Jeremy Swayman is paramount in 2025-26. But Sweeney added that the Bruins could foster “internal competition” by giving Joonas Koprisalo (27 games) more reps in 2025-26.

Sweeney said that re-upping Morgan Geekie on a “longer-term” deal remains a priority. “We know he’s going to be on our team next year,” Sweeney said of the restricted free agent.

Sweeney also confirmed that several Bruins will play in the IIHF World Championships next month in Sweden and Denmark. Pastrnak and Jakub Lauko will play for Czechia, the defending champion. Swayman, Mason Lohrei, and Andrew Peeke will play for Team USA, and Lindholm will represent Sweden.

Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com.