(Photo credit: Steve Babineau, Boston Bruins)

One day certainly will not make or break Don Sweeney’s tenure as General Manager of the Boston Bruins. But it’s safe to say that the beginning of the Sweeney era is off to a rough start.

Forced to deal with little salary cap space given over from former GM Peter Chiarelli (now in Edmonton), Sweeney had to make some moves to clear some cap space. Those moves, however, didn’t make the Bruins better for the time being.

The day started when future top defenseman Dougie Hamilton and his negotiating rights were traded to Calgary in exchange for picks No. 15, 45 and 52 in this weekend’s Entry Draft. An hour or two later, the Bruins issued the official release of Milan Lucic being traded to Los Angeles for goaltender Martin Jones, prospect Colin Miller and the 13th pick. The B’s will carry $2.75 million of Lucic’s salary in the final year of the power forward’s contract.

The Bruins, who had the 14th pick, wound up with three straight picks in the first round. Perhaps those could’ve been used to trade up in the draft and select Boston College defenseman Noah Hanafin or talented forwards Dylan Strome and Mitchell Marner from the OHL. Instead, amidst all the rumors of the Arizona Coyotes making the third pick available, they stood pat and selected Czech blue-liner Jakub Zboril (Saint John, QMJHL), Jake Debrusk (Swift Current, WHL) and Zachary Senyshyn (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) with picks 13, 14 and 15.

This, coupled with Carl Soderberg’s rights being traded for a sixth round pick and agreeing to terms with Adam McQuaid on a 4-year contract worth $11 million (with a cap hit of $2.75 million), begs the question: are the Bruins better off from a year ago in which they missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years? So far, they are not.

“We have picks, we have assets that I can try and turn into, but I’m not going to force that,” Sweeney told reporters at the first round of the Entry Draft in South Florida on Friday. “We shed salary as a result of that as well, so we’re in a position going forward where we have to have our younger players in this situation step forward and we give them an opportunity to grow and develop. I feel confident our coaches will be able to do that.”

Zboril, Debrusk and Senyshyn are a year or two away from beginning their professional careers, according to most scouting reports. Those picks could turn into something good or they could turn into busts. Considering that talents like Matthew Brazal (Seattle, WHL) and Kyle Connor (Youngstown, USHL) were available, Sweeney could regret these selections during a deep draft.

What did Sweeney accomplish on this day? He did manage to solve the backup goaltending situation by getting Jones (assuming he signs with the team as a pending RFA) and looked to the future. Rather than risk losing Lucic for nothing after next season, he got a few assets. Rather than be forced to risk a team sign Hamilton to an offer sheet, he got three picks.

It also means that the pieces of the Phil Kessel trade are now gone. Tyler Seguin turned into Reilly Smith and Loui Eriksson. Hamilton turned into three picks. And Jared Knight didn’t meet expectations.

Perhaps Sweeney will make a few moves in the days following the draft. In the meantime, there’s a bit of confusion on whether the Bruins are in a rebuilding stage or a team — that still has key core players like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask and young and talented forwards such as David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner — looking to return to the playoffs.

“Our expectation is to make the playoffs,” Sweeney said to the press on Friday. “With our goaltending, the core group of guys, our strength up the middle of the ice…we’re going to continue to improve our club as well.”