Cam Neely acknowledged Wednesday night the Bruins need to “prepare for two paths” when it comes to the NHL trade deadline.
The team president spoke at the team’s Black and Gold Gala to benefit the Bruins foundation at the Fairmont Copley.
The club’s positioning in the playoff picture will dictate which road Neely and general manager Don Sweeney chose to go down.
Charlie Jacobs, the franchise’s CEO, spoke before Neely and expressed full confidence that Neely and Sweeney will choose the right route.
The Bruins (22-19-5) sit in a playoff spot in third place in the Atlantic Division.
Neely and Jacobs acknowledged the season has been disappointing and frustrating at times, especially given that they believe the roster is better than it has performed.
“I believe in our leadership,” said Jacobs. “I know that’s been called into question quite a bit recently. I hope that we can build off the last two games that we played. Our team, in my opinion, is yet to play its best game yet. I feel like we’ve got it in our system, we’ve got it in the room, and our hope is that we can find it.”
Neely said the hope is to be in a buyer’s position leading up to the March 7 deadline, but any move must make sense.
“Well, we’d certainly like to improve, but as I said, we’ll see what happens with what teams decide to do heading into the 4 Nations [Face-Off , Feb. 12-25] and then after 4 Nations is done, it’s a race to the deadline, so we will see where we’re at,” said Neely. “I think right now we’ve got to look at two paths, one that we’re buying and one that we may be just retooling a little bit. We still feel like we’ve got a playoff team here and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we’ve made some moves that may be good for the future, but not good for the present.”
Neely made it clear he does not have an “appetite” for a retool.
The Bruins have made the playoffs eight times in the past 10 seasons and have traditionally been buyers at the deadline. Just two seasons ago during their record-setting run, the club traded for Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, and Garnet Hathaway. Last season the club acquired Pat Maroon in the lead up to the postseason.
“We’ve gone all in a number of times over the past 10 years and rightfully so, and we got to be smart,” said Neely. “If you do it again, you’ve got to know that you’re a team that has a good chance to have a deep run. You don’t want to go all in and then not really feel confident that you’re going to have a deep run.”
Jacobs, who called the team’s inconsistency “a head scratcher,” leaves the hockey decisions to Neely and Sweeney.
“I have faith that they’ll make the right decisions. I don’t have the playbook for that. I have faith that they will make those decisions though,” said Jacobs. “I was thinking about it, too. So, Sweeney, he’s [Team Canada’s] GM for the 4 Nations, so obviously he’s out there watching. He’s also a GM for the Olympic team in ’26 for Team Canada. So, I feel like he’s got a pretty good pulse on what’s out there in the market in terms of player personnel that might be available to us. And every time I call him, and we speak quite a bit, he’s always looking and always shopping. So, I have faith.”
While lauding the tenure of Neely and Sweeney, Jacobs said reaching the playoffs is not how he measures success.
“Let’s be very clear about that. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup,” he said. “But you can’t win the Stanley Cup if you don’t make it to the playoffs.”
As the longest-tenured Bruin, Brad Marchand knows the deal and that the players know the position they’re in.
“We’re aware of the situation. We understand the roads that are in front of us and where they lead,” said the captain, who is in the final year of his deal. “We understand we haven’t performed the way we’ve needed to and there are consequences that come with that. There are very high expectations in this organization. We’re expected to perform and do our job and compete every year for a Cup. And if we’re not going to do that, then changes are going to be made so that the team does compete for a Cup. You can’t look ahead. There’s too much that can happen between now and [the trade deadline]. We have to take it day by day and put a good stretch together.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.