In some ways, Bruins GM Don Sweeney is right back where he started in the retooling days of 2015. But now he’s got to do a better job than he did then, and with fewer assets to do it.

In a sometimes testy early morning Tuesday press conference at Warrior Ice Arena, Sweeney met reporters to explain why he fired popular and successful (though, apparently, not successful enough) Coach Bruce Cassidy.

While there have been rumblings of player unrest, Sweeney said that the players “are not driving the bus” in these kinds of decisions and emphatically said that Cassidy didn’t “lose the room.”

“(But) they agreed with me, and I had used the statement that we had left something on the table, and they felt the same way,” said Sweeney, who confirmed that Cassidy had already let assistant Kevin Dean go. “Young or old, I think there’s a message delivery that a new voice will resonate with them.”

So, essentially, Sweeney determined the message had gotten stale.

Sweeney has been down this road before. When he fired Claude Julien to promote Cassidy in 2017, there was also a hue and cry over the sacking. But in hindsight, Sweeney very well may have waited too long in taking that action. The Bruins at the time were headed for a third straight DNQ and Cassidy stepped in and magnificently turned the ship around.

No one can accuse Sweeney of waiting too long to can Cassidy. The Bruins made the playoffs every season he was at the helm and his .672 points percentage is the best for a Bruins coach since the fortunate men who shepherded the team during the Bobby Orr era. With all due respect to “message delivery,” Cassidy was not the problem.

But after both Sweeney and team president delivered some pointed criticism at Cassidy in their respective end-of-season pressers, Cassidy would have been set up for failure next season, especially after it was announced that Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk will all miss significant chunks of time to start the season. A slow start is almost guaranteed and the “hot seat” rumblings for Cassidy would have started early. That never ends well.

Instead of waiting till November to look for a coach, it was probably best to do the deed now if neither Sweeney nor Cam Neely were willing to give Cassidy their strong backing. Clearly, they weren’t going to do that, so better to make their new coaching hire now when there are many quality candidates. That person will face the same predicament as Cassidy would have, but will have more latitude to withstand it.

The man who makes the most sense would be Seattle assistant Jay Leach. Sweeney clearly believes more can be gotten out of the youth in the organization, and Leach was the head coach of the 2019-20 Providence Bruins when Jack Studnicka led the team in scoring for a squad that was 38-18-6 at the time of the pandemic shutdown. If anyone could get Studnicka”s stagnated development back on track, one would think Leach would be the guy. Trent Frederic, Oskar Steen and Jakub Zboril were also on that team, and all of them could be significant players in 2022-23.

But Sweeney must find a way to restock his prospect pool. While Sweeney rightly pointed out that there are still some very good players on the roster, they are still waiting on Patrice Bergeron’s decision. Sweeney said he had touched base with David Krejci’s camp but had no definitive answer. But even if both those estimable players decide to return, neither is a long-term solution for what’s on the horizon. And Sweeney conceded that the injury situation the Bruins are facing to start the season could trigger something of a soft rebuild.

“If we have injuries and things that you just can’t catch up to get out from under, that’s a problem,” said Sweeney. “And Bergeron could be a directional shift as well.”

He had one kick at that can back in 2015, when Dougie Hamilton wanted out and Milan Lucic was not playing up to his big contact. Moving those two players put the then-rookie GM in the position of having six picks in the first two rounds of a very deep draft. Sweeney had worked the count in his favor, got a fat pitch down the middle and then hit a dribbler up the line.

This time he has fewer chips to play, at least at the moment. He could move Jake DeBrusk – who presumably is less disgruntled now that Cassidy is gone – but DeBrusk wouldn’t net you a franchise-altering return. When his wounded are healthy, Sweeney could also move a left-shot defenseman.

A future detonation move would be to trade David Pastrnak if the sniper decides he wants to test the free-agent market next summer, but Sweeney said that he plans to get to work on an extension when Pastrnak is eligible to sign one on July 13. We’ll see if the player is equally eager. And if that whopper is ever on the table, you’d have to wonder if Marchand could be next.

Right now, however, Sweeney’s biggest avenue to effect meaningful change is to hire a coach. If he hires the wrong one, it’s a good bet he won’t get the chance to hire another one.

“As it stands right now,” said Sweeney, who gave the indication he’s in the process of finalizing his own extension, “I have the support of the people that I work with and work for and I’m thankful for that.”

As Cassidy can attest, however, that support can be fleeting in this business.

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