Don Sweeney puts pressure on Chara and his agent.

It has been a relatively underwhelming offseason for the Boston Bruins thus far, and I think even the most diehard Bruins loyalist would be hard pressed to argue that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has improved his team over the offseason. Sweeney has made very few moves of note, with arguably the biggest move of the offseason being the departure of defenseman Torey Krug, but there have been reports suggesting that the general manager's hands may be tied due to rumblings of an internal cap imposed by owner Jeremy Jacobs. 

From my experience fans in Boston will be pretty empathetic towards Sweeney under these circumstances as Jacobs' reputation in the city of Boston has been well established. Even fans of rival teams know of the notoriously frugal Jeremy Jacobs, and I don't think anyone is going to have a hard time believing that he's looking to cut corners where he can during the difficult times imposed on the league by the current pandemic. 

One issue fans have not been so willing to overlook however has been the lingering question surrounding the future of Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Unlike some of the other moves that the Bruins have been linked to in the offseason this one isn't going to break the bank no matter what and no one really believes that Chara is going to make exorbitant contract demands of his long time team either. So why hasn't the big man been signed yet, especially given the loss of a big veteran presence like Krug on the blue line? 

Well the truth is there could be a number of factors at play here but on Saturday, while discussing his signing of Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, Sweeney appeared to put a little pressure on Chara and his agent by placing the ball firmly in their side of the court. 

"We've communicated consistently with Zdeno and Matt Keator," said Sweeney. "We're just waiting for him to initiate what he would like to do moving forward. I feel very comfortable letting Matt taking the necessary time and let Zdeno make his own decision along that."

Keator is of course Chara's agent and representative in his negotiation with the Bruins and Sweeney with these comments has placed the onus squarely on the big man and his agent. It sounds like, if the Bruins GM is to be believed, that he is merely waiting on a decision from Chara before moving forward with signing him to a new deal.