Peverley Excels at Both Ends of Ice
The following article featuring former St. Lawrence standout Rich Peverley appeared October 11 on the ESPN Boston Web site.
By James Murphy
ESPNBoston.com
WILMINGTON, Mass. -- The Bruins announced Tuesday that they signed Rich Peverley to a three-year contract extension. The deal, which will keep Peverley from becoming an unrestricted free agent after the season, is worth $9.75 million with a $3.25 million cap hit per season. Based on Peverley's short stay with the Bruins since arriving at the NHL trade deadline last season, that could prove to be quite the steal for Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli. Peverley has two goals in his first three games this season and he and linemates Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand have shown good chemistry early in the season.
"That's one heck of a deal Pete got there," said one NHL executive Tuesday night. "You lock up Krejci (a restricted free agent in July, 2012) and you have two solid scoring lines in place for the next few years at least and that's not even counting a kid like [Tyler] Seguin below them who can provide offense too and could play in that top six soon as well. They've got plenty of depth locked up and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions. That's scary there."
When the Bruins acquired Peverley for Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart at the 2011 NHL trade deadline, the skinny on Peverley was that he was a solid two-way player that would bring versatility and speed to an already deep forward group. Peverley had one 22-goal season under his belt while playing with the Thrashers in 2009-10, but when Claude Julien slotted him in on the third line with Michael Ryder and fellow newcomer Chris Kelly, it appeared Peverley would be depended on mostly for his speed and defensive skills.
Complete article can be accessed via the ESPN Web site by clicking here.
