{"id":149956,"date":"2025-09-17T08:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149956\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T08:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:04:07","slug":"bruins-promote-adam-mcquaid-hire-ben-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149956\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins Promote Adam McQuaid, Hire Ben Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Bruins defenseman\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcquaad01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Adam McQuaid<\/a>\u00a0is now carving out a successful career for himself in their front office. The club <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/bruins\/news\/bruins-announce-hockey-operations-staff-promotions-and-additions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a> today that he\u2019s been promoted to a director of player development role, among a few other minor hockey ops hirings and promotions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a new role in the organization, so McQuaid will presumably be taking some work off an assistant GM\u2019s plate. Boston didn\u2019t have a particularly large player development department \u2013 it consisted of McQuaid, their lone dedicated skater development coach and coordinator since his hiring in 2021, and longtime NHL netminder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/dunhami01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Dunham<\/a>\u00a0as their goalie development coach.<\/p>\n<p>While a reward for McQuaid\u2019s work so far, the title change is also a signifier for Boston\u2019s organizational repositioning from contender to retooler. The club was a big seller at last year\u2019s trade deadline and added center\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/597747\/james-hagens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">James Hagens<\/a> \u2013 their top prospect since selecting\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcavoch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Charlie McAvoy<\/a>\u00a0nearly a decade ago \u2013 with the No. 7 overall pick in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Bruins are also bringing up\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/staff\/56256\/nick-neary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Neary<\/a>\u00a0from their AHL staff to join the big club. The 30-year-old joined the Providence Bruins in 2020 as a video coordinator before being promoted to the club\u2019s video coach and manager of hockey operations prior to last season. He\u2019ll now serve on the NHL staff as an assistant video coordinator under\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/staff\/29963\/mathew-myers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mathew Myers<\/a>, who\u2019s been Boston\u2019s video coach since 2019. Replacing Neary in Providence is\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/447440\/cameron-wolbach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cam Wolbach<\/a>, who lands his first documented hockey staffing job. He played high school hockey in Massachusetts as well as ACHA Division II hockey with Bentley University.<\/p>\n<p>Joining McQuaid in Boston\u2019s player development department is former NHL forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithbe01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-16_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ben Smith<\/a>, who\u2019s been brought on under McQuaid as a player development coordinator. It doubles as a retirement announcement for the 37-year-old, who had been playing in Germany since heading overseas in 2018. He suited up for Boston College but never played for the Bruins. Smith won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2013 and recorded 54 points in 237 NHL games for them, the Maple Leafs, Sharks, and Avalanche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Bruins defenseman\u00a0Adam McQuaid\u00a0is now carving out a successful career for himself in their front office. The club&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[79624,79625,740,49,48,82,4390],"class_list":["post-149956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adam-mcquaid","tag-ben-smith","tag-boston-bruins","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}