Mike O’Connell is a big believer in Marco Sturm

Since his playing days ended Marco Sturm embarked on a methodical journey from the German national to group to NHL assistant to AHL head coach until he eventually reached the goal of becoming an NHL head coach when he was hired by the Bruins on Thursday Sturm was presumably going to be a head coach somewhere at particular point in his career But it s highly questionable if he would have landed the Boston gig if former GM Mike O Connell did not make a certain bargain almost years ago That deal of lesson was the Joe Thornton exchange to San Jose that brought Sturm Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau to Boston Sturm stayed in Boston for five seasons and the current management s familiarity with Sturm in part helped facilitate his hiring O Connell who went on to be the head of contestant advancement for the Los Angeles Kings with his time there overlapping with Sturm s tenure as an assistant in LA could see the path the German was on would lead to where he is in contemporary times He put the time in over in Europe and then he came over made that commitment to the Kings to be an assistant and then he moved down to Ontario AHL to the be the head coach commented O Connell reached by phone last week So he did all the right things he made all the right decisions with regards to his career and experience and really get to know he business He s an extremely bright guy and tremendous person He took all the necessary approaches to gain the necessary experience to achieve a goal he was allegedly looking to achieve O Connell worked with the young players in the Kings organization and not so much with the big club when Sturm was an assistant but he believes the B s new head coach will be a good fit to work with the youth that should be coming through the organization in the next couple of years He knows the young players and he knows the direction the competition is going and where it is in the present day reported O Connell He had a tremendous playing career so he knows where it was how it was evolving and where it is the present day Based on those things he has a pretty good understanding of where it s headed Former B s captain Patrice Bergeron disclosed last week that Sturm was an critical mentor for him something O Connell noticed as well It was hard not to notice because he was such a good person He cares about his teammates noted O Connell I can remember when once we made the deal with San Jose and Sturm was involved in the deal Dean Lombardi the former San Jose GM that was replaced by Doug Wilson in called me and he declared Marco is an unbelievable person Terrific human being he s dedicated to his craft he takes it seriously and in a very professional way At the time of the bargain the Bruins were in a slow-moving upheaval They were one of the top teams in the league in - before being upset by the Montreal Canadiens in seven games as Thornton dealing with torn rib cartilage was held off the board Then came the lockout that wiped out the - season as the owners led in part by B s owner Jeremy Jacobs pushed for the installation of a salary cap a movement that was eventually achieving During that time the B s allowed a handful of crucial players Mike Knuble Brian Rolston and Sergei Gonchar among them to walk When business resumed the best the B s could do in the free agent sector was an aging Alexei Zhamnov who lasted games before a hip injury led to his retirement and defenseman Brian Leetch for whom the - season would be the last of his Hall of Fame career The B s sputtered out of the gate that season and the deal was made outraging a great number of Bruins fans From that outside looking in it appeared that situation weighed more heavily on Stuart than it did the effervescent Sturm though O Connell didn t fully agree with that I m sure it was complicated for all of them reported O Connell We had to do something because we weren t going anywhere because of the decisions we made prior and during the lockout with the players that we lost outstanding players that we lost It was the reason why we had to make that decision to make the big deal that we did But everyone s different Brad is more of an introverted guy and Marco has more of an infectious way about him The pact did not save the - Bruins As they were headed for a DNQ O Connell was dismissed For several the exchange would define his tenure But that history should be revised a little bit O Connell drafted Bergeron in and then David Krejci both of whom solidified the center position for the next two decades He also was the first to hire Mike Sullivan who was the bulk sought-after coach on the arena this spring before getting the Rangers head coaching job He was also the first to hire current Montreal Canadien association president Jeff Gorton one of the majority of highly regarded executives in the league It was Gorton who drafted Phil Kessel Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand in the summer of setting up the B s for a long run of success One of the last players O Connell signed was Tim Thomas And though Sturm didn t last in Boston to lift the Stanley Cup in he was part of the club s resurgence Now it will be his job to get the B s back among the elites He s a really good person and I think he s going to be a really good coach stated O Connell He listens intently he s smart He reminds me a little bit of in his demeanor of Mike Sullivan They carry themselves in a similar way I m not sure that Marco is as fiery as Mike can be but he s intelligent and he looks at things from all different angles