Perhaps the most important skill of an NHL general manager is the ability to construct a team with a long-term vision in mind.

It sounds simple enough, but in actuality it’s easier said than done. Individual transactions that look like good moves in a vacuum have to fit together in a larger picture.

For Don Sweeney, that picture is bringing the Boston Bruins back to playoffs and eventually winning another Stanley Cup championship. But that feels a long ways away.

As the Bruins await the start of the 2025-26 campaign, all Sweeney is looking for right now is a team that’s at a bare minimum competitive. 

“There’s going to be a competition for ice time and for roster spot, and that was by design all summer long,” Sweeney told reporters Tuesday. “We made a massive change in direction last year at the deadline, and now we need to course correct. We need to take steps forward and get back to the level and standing that we all expect.” 

Sweeney did not make many high-profile additions to the roster during the offseason. 

Instead, he brought in a wave of depth singings that will battle for with an incoming wave of youth throughout the season. In theory, that internal competition will fuel the Bruins, and make for a team that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“If we stay healthy, I think we’re going to be really competitive,” said Sweeney. “Ultimately, we’re going to blend, as [head coach] Marco [Strum] talked the other day, a standard that has got to be risen in terms of how competitive we’re going to be, with the structure he wants to play.” 

If Sweeney is the architect of this rebuilding project, then Sturm is the foreman who will oversee its day-to-day progression beginning when the Bruins open training camp next week. 

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Last year, a passive approach in camp was kickstarted the Bruins down the road toward missing the playoffs and a last place finish in the Eastern Conference. 

That will not be the case this year. Both Sweeney and Sturm have promised that camp will be conducted with a newfound level of intensity. 

“For me, training camp, it’s setting the tone the right way,” Sturm said. “That’s how it should be. It should be good, and it should be hard. That’s what training camp is all about, and that’s how I’m going to treat it.” 

Of course, there’s no guarantee that a good solid month of training camp alone will be enough to bring the Bruins back to the postseason. A lot of other factors have to work out in order for that to happen.

But at the very least, it will bring them back to respectability, and that’s the first step in overall the process.

“I think it’s both on the individual and collective level that we can look for those markers,” said Sweeney. “But again, as I said from day one, it’s the internal engine and how we’re going to compete. It’s how we’re going to be ready to practice each and every day moving forward, with the goal of being ready for opening night.” 

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