Mammoth Sign Andrew Peeke

After losing Sean Durzi in the Vincent Trocheck trade earlier this week and Ian Cole to Chicago in free agency, Utah’s defensive depth has taken a hit.  The team is taking a step towards helping replenish some of that depth as the team announced they’ve signed blueliner Andrew Peeke to a one-year, $1MM contract.  GM Bill Armstrong released the following statement about the signing:

Andrew is a big, mobile defenseman that brings depth to our blue line. He’s a smart player with offensive upside, and we’re happy to add him to the club.

The 28-year-old spent last season with Boston, playing in 77 games.  He had five goals, nine assists, 135 blocked shots, and 105 hits while averaging 19:23 per night of ice time.  For his career, Peeke has 75 points in 386 games over parts of six seasons between Boston and Columbus, while contributing over 700 hits and blocks.

Given his track record, it’s rather surprising to see Peeke’s contract come in this low and on a one-year commitment.  For context, he made $2.75MM per season for three years on his old deal.  Given the escalation of salaries (especially for right-shot defenders), Peeke was expected to secure a raise on his next deal, not this big of a decrease.  That’s either a sign of the market starting to tighten up or he had the Mammoth in mind as a specific target.

Peeke should have a similar role in Utah as the one he had last season, one that saw him split time between the second and third pairings while logging a lot of time shorthanded.  A lot will depend on the readiness of some of their prospects such as Dmitriy Simashev and Maveric Lamoureux, who could push him down on the depth chart.  Even if Peeke winds up on the third pairing, it’s still a pretty team-friendly deal for Utah, who now has just under $3.7MM remaining in cap space, per PuckPedia.

Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic was the first to report the deal.