After adding some physicality up front earlier Friday with a trade for Pat Maroon, the Bruins have now added some on the blue line, acquiring right-shot defenseman Andrew Peeke from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Jakub Zboril and a 2027 third-round pick.
Andrew Raycroft reacts live to Bruins' trade for Pat Maroon
It's an interesting -- and risky -- move, because on the surface, Peeke's contract doesn't look great, and the Blue Jackets are not retaining any salary.
Peeke, who turns 26 next week, is signed for two more years after this with a cap hit of $2.75 million. In the short-term, the Bruins must be moving out salary elsewhere considering they don't have enough cap space to accommodate Peeke's contract. (UPDATE: According to the Boston Globe's Matt Porter, that move will be Derek Forbort going on long-term injured reserve.)
Going forward, they must believe that they can get a lot more out of Peeke than the Blue Jackets were. While Peeke played over 20 minutes per game the last couple years, his ice time went way down to 15:37 per game this season, and he was a frequent healthy scratch.
Peeke brings size (6-foot-3, 214 pounds) and physicality (he topped 150 blocks and 150 hits in both 2021-22 and 2022-23), but little in the way of offense and transition play. His defensive analytics don't exactly jump off the page either, although it can be tough to judge individual impacts on a team that's as bad defensively as Columbus.
Zboril, meanwhile, now gets a much-needed fresh start elsewhere. Picked in the first round in 2015, the 27-year-old defenseman wound up playing just 76 NHL games for Boston. The closest he came to establishing himself as an NHL regular was early in the 2021-22 season, but then he suffered a season-ending torn ACL and really never got back to that level again. He had gone unclaimed on waivers twice this season.