March 9, 2024 | 4:00pm ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com
BRUINS GM ADDRESSED TEAM NEEDS AT DEADLINE
Bruins GM Don Sweeney
BOSTON, MA —It happens every season at this time of year. The anticipation for the NHL Trade Deadline builds for weeks and with the Bruins firmly entrenched in a playoff position, it was clear the organization would be in buyer mode. The only questions were who would be coming to Boston and who would be leaving.
The Bruins were constrained by salary cap restrictions – they went into the day with $61,558 in available cap space – and many, if not all, observers wondered how they would achieve any player movement at all. When the three o’clock deadline arrived, all questions were answered.
Among people throughout the hockey world, the thinking had been that Boston needed veteran players for the positions of center and defenseman.
Before the Deadline, the TFP Trade Watch List had connected the Bruins with centers Adam Henrique and Alexander Wennberg. However, both were traded the day before Deadline Day. Henrique was moved from the Anaheim Ducks to the Edmonton Oilers while the Seattle Kraken sent Wennberg to the New York Rangers.
Defensemen who were speculated to be of interest to Bruins management were Noah Hanifin, Matt Dumba, David Savard and Joel Edmundson but when it was all said and done, Hanifin who was with the Calgary Flames, now calls Vegas (Golden Knights) home. Dumba has moved from the Arizona Coyotes to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Savard will continue to don the “Bleu, Blanc et Rouge” of the Montreal Canadiens while Edmundson was traded by the Washington Capitals to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Of course, evaluating a team’s needs can be fluid right up until the deadline itself but one thing that is known is that, as Boston’s GM Don Sweeney pointed out in a pre-game appearance on the New England Sports Network (NESN) on February 29, the organization hoped to add a player or two who will bring much-needed physicality to the lineup.
“We’ve always put forth that we want to be a highly competitive team,” Sweeney said on the broadcast. “There's the physical part of the game that we're lacking at times. When we get dragged in or drag ourselves in, we respond appropriately throughout our lineup but, can we start that and survive that as an area maybe we'd like to try and address. Not easy. This time of the year it’s always difficult but it’s something we’d like to do to find some areas of need, as I’ve referenced. We've tried to use our depth throughout the organization. A lot of guys have done a tremendous job in that regard, but we may have to look to the outside if it’s possible."
Sweeney, who has pulled off a surprise deal or two during his tenure as the Bruins GM (I present to you last year’s acquisitions of Dmitri Orlov and Tyler Bertuzzi as Exhibits A and B), did it again this year by looking outside the organization and trading for Pat Maroon from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Providence Bruins (AHL) forward Luke Toporowski and a 2026 conditional sixth-round draft pick which will be transferred if Maroon plays in a 2024 Stanley Cup playoff game for Boston.
Maroon, 35, has a well-earned reputation for being one of the NHL’s most physical players who is not shy about dropping the gloves to protect his highly skilled teammates.
In 778 career NHL games with the Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oilers, and Anaheim Ducks, the 6-foot-3, 234-pound native of St. Louis, Missouri has accumulated 990 penalty minutes.
Do not get the impression that Maroon is a one-dimensional player. He has also registered 304 career points on 121 goals and 183 assists. Add in his playoff totals of 51 points on 21 goals and 28 assists in 151 postseason games and you have a player who can contribute to playoff success. Something he did as a member of three Stanley Cup championship teams in the 2019 St. Louis Blues, the 2020 and 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning. In a Bruins dressing room that had two players who have won the Stanley Cup (Brad Marchand and Kevin Shattenkirk), Maroon’s playoff experience will be a welcomed addition.
Incidentally, Shattenkirk and Maroon were teammates on the 2020 Tampa Bay club.
The only negative to bringing Maroon to Boston at this time is that he will not be able to join his new club in game action for a few weeks due to back surgery which was performed on February 6, 2024.
“Pat’s (Pat Maroon) coming back off of disc surgery, so he's probably four and a half weeks removed, just starting to get back on the ice,” Sweeney said when he addressed the media after the deadline had passed. “We don't have a definitive timeline there. We'll just let that play out, get accustomed with our medical team, and let him progress. We know when he plays his best hockey, and the fact is that he's been part of championship teams, and the pedigree that he has, and what he brings to the table, I think was important to us on and off the ice, and we're excited to bring Pat on board.”
Maroon’s contract which carries an annual average value of $800,000 expires after this season.
After trading for Maroon, Sweeney sent Providence Bruin defenseman Jakub Zboril and a 2027 third-round draft pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for defenseman Andrew Peeke.
Peeke is a big (6-foot-3, 214-pounds), right-shot, rear-guard who is a mobile, defensive defender. Since being drafted in the second round (34th overall) of the 2016 NHL Draft by Columbus, the 25-year-old native of Parkland, Florida has played in 218 career NHL games, all with the Blue Jackets, totaling 10 goals and 32 assists for 42 points. This season, Peeke averaged 15:37 Time On Ice per game with the Blue Jackets.
Peeke’s acquisition adds depth to Boston’s defense and history has proved that a team cannot have too many defensemen during the postseason.
“Andrew [Peeke] addresses another need for us, in depth in the right side, size, penalty killing,” Sweeney said. “In years past, we've gone through most of the defenseman at certain times and areas of the game that he can help our group and bring balance to our group. He's been in and out of the (Blue Jackets) lineup. We've watched him. Even the last couple of nights where he's gone in and played 20 minutes against the Oilers. I think it’ll be an adjustment coming into a new structure and the systems that we play. But we're excited about going to work with him as a bigger body on the right side that I think is hard to find.”
Peeke has two years remaining on his contract after this season at an annual average value of $2.75 million.
“It's not a rental,” said Sweeney. “We have that player moving forward. He's young, and we'll have to make sure we continue to sharpen up his game. He's excited.”
Peeke comes to a Boston team where he knows Jeremy Swayman and Trent Frederic. The three players were members of the 2018 Team USA that played in that year’s World Junior Championships.
Sweeney completed a third transaction when he signed Bruins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon to a one-year, $800,000 contract extension.
Sweeney did what he set out to do in adding physicality and a reliable defenseman to the roster and did so without subtracting any players from the lineup although there was a report that the general manager had a deal in place that would have seen goaltender Linus Ullmark depart Boston, however, Ullmark used his trade protection and chose to stay in a black and gold uniform.
Sweeney was asked about the report during his media availability but chose not to discuss the matter.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not ever going to get into a conversation with what I may have talked to Linus about,” Sweeney said. “I acknowledge we explored different situations and we had opportunities to move different players, but I'm not getting into the intricacies of what's in somebody's contract at this point in time.”
The regular season is coming into the home stretch and the playoffs are in sight. Sweeney is satisfied with his club and is looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
“I like where our team is (and) at how competitive they are,” said Sweeney. “Let's see where we stack up.”
