With some major decisions still to be made in this pivotal offseason, the Bruins provided some much needed stability at the top of their hockey operations department on Tuesday.

The B’s signed general manager Don Sweeney, who had been entering into the final year of his contract, to a two-year extension, which will keep him under contract through the 2027-28 season.

On the to-do list for Sweeney is to hire a new head coach, conduct the draft in which the B’s have the No. 7 pick, and then look to attract some top-shelf free agents on July 1 as well as re-sign his own restricted free agents Morgan Geekie and Mason Lohrei. Doing all that as a lame-duck GM would have been far from optimal.

“I am very appreciative to Charlie, the entire Jacobs family, and to Cam (Neely) for their continued trust and support,” said Sweeney in a statement. “It’s an honor to be part of a franchise with such a storied history and passionate fanbase. I fully understand and embrace the responsibility that comes with this role. Our fans have high expectations for this team, and so do I. The collective goal is to build a team that makes Bruins fans proud and ultimately brings another Stanley Cup back to Boston.”

In the season-ending press conference, Neely staunchly defended Sweeney’s record after the B’s first season in nine years in which they did not qualify for the playoffs but he did not commit to an extension at that time. Now this item of business has been taken care of.

“Don has navigated a disappointing period for our club with conviction, purpose, and a clear vision toward the future of the Boston Bruins,” said Neely in the team release. “He made difficult decisions around the trade deadline with the confidence they will pay dividends as we craft a path back to contention. He is continuing to follow that track with a robust and thorough search for our club’s next head coach, while also preparing for the upcoming NHL Draft and free agent signing period. I am confident in the plan he has followed these past few months — and excited for what’s to come for our team. The expectations in Boston have always been clear. It’s about winning championships.”

Sweeney has been the GM since the summer of 2015 and he’s had his highs and lows. Right out of the gate, he was strapped with a salary cap crunch that forced him to trade Milan Lucic. He could also not come to an extension with defenseman Dougie Hamilton, resulting in his trade. Those trades gave the B’s three first-round picks and three second-round picks. He was able to net Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo, two contributors to future success, but he left a lot of talent on the table. In that first round, he was not able to move up in the draft as he desired and he was left with three picks at 13, 14, and 15. Sandwiched around DeBrusk were Jakub Zboril and Zach Senyshyn. Left on the board were players who would be impact NHLers like Matthew Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Brock Boeser and Travis Konecny.

The B’s missed the playoffs the following season and then, in February 2017, he fired long-time coach Claude Julien and hired assistant Bruce Cassidy. The B’s took off after that and made the playoffs, the first season of an eight-year post-season run.

In 2019, thanks in part to a couple of a strong mid-season acquisitions of Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johanssen, they made it all the way to the Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final before losing on home ice. Sweeney was named NHL General Manager of the Year after that season.

The B’s lost in the second round the next two years and, after a first-round ouster in 2022, Cassidy was fired.

While Cassidy went on to be hired by the Vegas Golden Knights and won the Cup the next year, the B’s posted a record 65-win season under new coaching hire Jim Montgomery and, thanks to some roster-bolstering moves at the deadline by Sweeney, were the overwhelming favorite to win the Cup before suffering a catastrophic first-round loss to the current defending champion Florida Panthers.

While he’s had some success with bottom six free agents, Sweeney doesn’t have the best record on his free agent signings at the top of the market, zig-zagging between successes and failures.

His first big signing, Matt Beleskey, scored 18 goals over two-plus seasons before he was sent to the minors. David Backes was signed in 2017 and provided solid leadership for some of the young players like Carlo, Charlie McAvoy (2016 14th overall pick) and Sean Kuraly but a succession of injuries thwarted his effectiveness and eventually led to his contract being offloaded to Anaheim just before the pandemic. The signing of goalie Jaroslav Halak provided Tuukka Rask with some much needed help and Linus Ullmark became a Vezina Trophy winner. Under-the-radar signee Morgan Geekie blossomed from a bottom six forward to a 33-goal scorer.

And last summer’s big signings of Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov did not nearly pay the dividends that were expected, leading to Sweeney trading away captain Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic, netting them two first-round picks and promising prospect Fraser Minten. Last summer’s retool has turned into a much bigger renovation job this offseason.

On the coaching front, three well-known commodities — Mike Sullivan (New York Rangers), Rick Tocchet (Philadelphia) and Joel Quenneville (Anaheim Ducks) — have all filled openings, though those coaches may not have been top targets of the B’s. But Sweeney has cast a wide net with possible candidates including Misha Donskov, Marco Sturm, Jay Woodcroft, Jay Leach and Joe Sacco, to name just a few.

With Sweeney now extended through 2028, those candidates have at least one big question about the organization answered.