Navigating through an NHL offseason is challenging for any general manager. 
From balancing the salary cap to weighing the team’s current potential against its long-term future, all while underneath the pressure of a fan base that is as informed as they are ignorant of what goes on behind the front office doors.
Put that general manager in a high-profile hockey market, and their route through the summer becomes all the more difficult.
Thus, I imagine, has been the life of Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney this offseason.
For the most part, Sweeney has done well this summer. And yet, the failure thus far to reach an agreement on a new contract with restricted free agent goalie Jeremy Swayman has many readying their pitchforks despite the net-positive offseason that Sweeney has had so far.
Yes, it’s August 12. The tense situation surrounding the status of Swayman’s contract that has endured for more than a year has only heightened following the trade of Linus Ullmark, making Swayman all the more important to the Bruins this season.
But as understandable as the frustration is, it’s not warranted. Not yet, anyway. As uncomfortable as the situation is between Swayman and the Bruins, it is by no means unfamiliar.
The Bruins were in this exact same scenario in 2006 with a young Patrice Bergeron, who at the time was already viewed as a cornerstone piece of the future of hockey in Boston when he became a restricted free agent at 21 years old after completing just his second season.
It’s almost unthinkable that the Bruins didn’t immediately lock up Bergeron before the start of that summer, but they had other priorities to handle first.
They began the offseason by trading longtime starting netminder Andrew Raycroft to the Toronto Maple Leafs on June 24, acquiring Finnish goalie prospect Tuukka Rask in exchange. After that, the Bruins made a splash in free agency with the signings of Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard on July 1.
Things then went quiet for more than a month. A deal did eventually get done between the Bruins and Bergeron when the two sides agreed to a five-year, $23.75 million contract on August 22.
Of course, that was a different time. Sweeney was still years away from becoming the general manager of the Bruins as he was only just beginning his career as an executive that summer when the team hired him to be its Director of Player development.
If you want a more recent example, rewind back to 2017 when the Bruins were pulling teeth while negotiating with then-RFA David Pastrnak.
Knowing they had to pay Pastrnak, the Bruins made few moves on the open market that offseason, aside from reaching low-cost agreements with their own free agents. It wasn’t until just before the start of training camp on September 14 that Sweeney inked Pastrnak to a six-year, $40 million deal.
The Bruins are certainly late in the game now with Swayman, but they have waited much longer in the past.
As it was in those aforementioned cases, patience remains important today, with plenty of time between now and the start of training camp in five weeks.
Until then, Bruins fans should put away their pitchforks but keep them sharp just in case.
