Athletics | June 17, 2011

The Stanley Cup's Crimson connections

Three Harvard alumni played front-office roles in building the Boston Bruins team that won ice hockey's 2011 Stanley Cup.

**The Bruins' Don Sweeney '88 hoists the Stanley Cup.** | Photograph by Brian Babineau/Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League celebrated on the ice in Vancouver, Canada, on June 15 when they won the seventh game of the finals over the Vancouver Canucks and so captured ice hockey's coveted Stanley Cup. The Bruins had not won the Cup since 1972. Three Harvard alumni, all ice hockey players themselves, were in the Bruins' front office and helped build the championship team. General manager Peter Chiarelli ’87 hired Bruins head coach Claude Julien in 2007 and has shaped the roster for more than five years with signings and trades. Assistant general manager Don Sweeney ’88 and director of collegiate scouting John Weisbrod ’91, both of whom have also logged five years with the Bruins, worked alongside Chiarelli in the team's front office to construct the squad that now owns the bragging rights on ice.

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