BRIGHTON, Mass. — Pat Maroon is recovering from back surgery. The new Boston Bruins forward, acquired from the Minnesota Wild on Friday for Luke Toporowski and a conditional 2026 sixth-round pick, recently resumed skating.
Andrew Peeke, brought in from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jakub Zboril and a 2027 third-rounder, will be No. 4 for now on the right side of the defense behind Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Kevin Shattenkirk. He was a regular healthy scratch for the down-and-out Blue Jackets. The 25-year-old will need time to learn coach Jim Montgomery’s zone system.
The Bruins placed Derek Forbort on long-term injured reserve to clear cap space for Maroon ($800,000 average annual value) and Peeke ($2.75 million). Forbort’s year is likely over, general manager Don Sweeney acknowledged.
So why did a championship contender add two depth players whose lineup arrivals are anything but imminent?
The Bruins have acquired Andrew Peeke from the Blue Jackets for Jakub Zboril, according to a league source.
The Blue Jackets will not retain any salary in the deal.
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— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 8, 2024
One explanation is that Sweeney was not playing with a full deck. He does not have any 2024 picks in Rounds 1, 2 or 3. Matt Poitras, Mason Lohrei and Fabian Lysell, his top three prospects, will be needed full-time, perhaps as soon as 2024-25.
Poitras could be the No. 3 center. Lohrei could replace Forbort or Matt Grzelcyk, whose contracts are expiring. Lysell could step in for Jake DeBrusk, who is also in the last year of his contract.
Sweeney was also dealing with cap tightness so severe that he could barely breathe. As an example, the GM had to assign Justin Brazeau to Providence on Feb. 22 just to bring up Ian Mitchell as a spare defenseman. Both are on minimum-wage deals. Dollars in, dollars out.
Trading Linus Ullmark could have helped to solve both issues.
The defending Vezina Trophy winner could have netted Sweeney much-needed futures. The Bruins could have opened up $5 million in cap space. Sweeney could have flipped any assets acquired for Ullmark for one or two players with greater impact than Maroon and Peeke. This would have set up Jeremy Swayman to be the clear-cut ace for the rest of 2023-24 and years to come.
It didn’t happen. The New Jersey Devils acquired Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens. The Los Angeles Kings, another team that may have considered a netminding upgrade, did nothing.
The Bruins’ goaltending tandem, their No. 1 position of power under the watch of goalie coach Bob Essensa, remains intact.
“I made no bones that if I had to rob from a real strength of this hockey club, that was something we may have to do if it made our team ultimately better,” Sweeney said. “And we didn’t move in that direction. That’s not an indictment on the two great goaltenders we have. It’s actually been a real strength of our hockey club from Day 1. It will continue throughout. We feel very comfortable each and every night.”
Ullmark has 16-team no-trade protection, per CapFriendly. Joakim Persson, Ullmark’s agent, declined to answer whether Ullmark exercised his no-trade clause. Same with Sweeney.
“I’m not ever going to get into a conversation with what I may have talked to Linus about,” Sweeney said. “I’ve acknowledged we’ve 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.”
If the Bruins continue their rotation, Ullmark will start on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Swayman stopped 28 of 29 shots in the Bruins’ 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday. Their rotation (35 starts for Swayman, 30 for Ullmark) may explain why they are No. 5 and 8, respectively, in goals saved above expectation, per MoneyPuck. Neither has to deal with the strain and stress of carrying the load.
“Both goalies benefit from having a strong relationship and pushing each other, knowing it’s hard to get the net if the other guy’s really good too,” Sweeney said. “And the team responds to that as well. Because both guys are highly motivated. They might get the opportunity. As Monty and Bobby have said, maybe we’re going to give a guy a run if they’re on a good run. I think both guys are competitive and internally driven to not give the net up. It’s not a fait accompli that they alternate every night. They know that.”
It’s not settled, then, how the Bruins will proceed in the playoffs. Last year, their No. 1 fatal flaw was riding Ullmark for the first six games. They may go with a pure postseason rotation. But neither Montgomery nor Essensa, the two primary decision-makers, has ruled out the traditional go-to playoff goalie.
“Where it stands right now, the rotation has worked,” Sweeney said. “But I don’t think they’re opposed that if a guy’s got the ability to take us on a run, let him run.”
So the Bruins will progress into the playoffs with their core group. At some point, that may include Maroon on the fourth line. The 6-foot-3, 234-pound forward plays a confrontational style. His checks land harder when he plays with his three championship rings in his pocket.
Wild trade Pat Maroon to Bruins for conditional draft pick and minor-league player
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— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 8, 2024
“A guy you want on your team, on the ice and off the ice,” said Kevin Shattenkirk, Maroon’s Cup-winning teammate with the Tampa Bay Lightning. “Great personality in the locker room. Great voice in the locker room who knows when to add some serious talk and when it’s time to buckle down. Obviously knows when it’s time to lighten up the room a little bit. The experience is obviously great. He knows how to play at this time of year and going into the playoffs.”
The 6-foot-3, 214-pound Peeke is partly a project. He is under contract through 2026. He projects to replace Shattenkirk, who is unrestricted at year’s end.
“Two years ago, he was playing with (Zach) Werenski most nights, 20 minutes,” Sweeney said. “Change of coach, change of systems. Some players respond, some players don’t. It’s incumbent upon us and our staff to make sure we’ve made the right decision and the player’s fully bought in.”
Maroon and Peeke are bit players. The 2023-24 Bruins will go as far as their goalies, superstars and mid-level contributors take them. Whether there’s enough there remains to be seen.
(Top photo of Linus Ullmark: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
