The Boston Bruins have added some depth to their blue line by acquiring defenseman Andrew Peeke from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for defenseman Jakub Zboril and a 2027 third-round draft pick, the B's announced before Friday's NHL trade deadline.
The 25-year-old Peeke is listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. He is a right-shot defenseman with 218 games of NHL experience -- all with the Blue Jackets. He has played 1:31 per game on the penalty kill this season. Peeke isn't afraid to put his body on the line to block shots. In fact, his 6.48 blocked shots per 60 minutes are the sixth-most of any defensemen since the start of the 2021-22 season (minimum 150 games played).
He's a tough player but also pretty one-dimensional. He's not going to contribute much offensively.
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Peeke is a third-pairing caliber defenseman who likely will be used in defensive and penalty kill situations.
He has two more years left on his contract with a $2.75 million salary cap hit. The Blue Jackets are not retaining any of Peeke's salary, per TSN's Chris Johnston. The Bruins don't have enough salary cap space to fit this contract, so there must be another move of some kind coming for the B's.
Zboril wasn't able to carve out a consistent role in Boston despite being the 13th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. He made his Bruins debut during the 2018-19 campaign and has totaled 78 games played at the NHL level. He did not play for the Bruins this season.
The Bruins also acquired veteran forward Pat Maroon from the Minnesota Wild earlier on Friday.
