Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Andrew Peeke dealing with diminished role
VANCOUVER, British Columbia ― It’s been a challenging season for Andrew Peeke.
Going into a game Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks, the Blue Jackets defenseman had played in just 17 games after missing only two combined the previous two years. He’s watching much more hockey than he’s playing, sitting out 29 times as a heathy scratch, and that’s not likely to change without injuries.
It’s frustrating, agitating and massively disappointing for Peeke, but the 25-year old defenseman has discovered a few things about himself.
“The biggest is just dealing with adversity and finding ways – day in, day out – to better yourself and better your game,” Peeke said. “You learn a lot about yourself as a person, as a player ... everything like that. It’s how to deal with adversity that’s right there in front of your face.”
Peeke’s adversity can be found in underlying statistics, both this season and during his NHL career. He's also among a crowded position group of capable NHL “depth” defensemen in Columbus.
Peeke has no goals, six assists and a –4 plus/minus rating in limited time this season, but according to Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets have had 5-on-5 disadvantages with him on the ice in attempts (43.9%), unblocked attempts (43.5%), shots on goal (44.8%), goals-for percentage (45.2%), expected goals-for percentage (37.2%), scoring chances (40.1%), high-danger scoring chances (34.4%) and high-danger goals-for percentage (33.3%)
Peeke, however, is third among Blue Jackets defensemen in hits (31) and fifth in blocked shots per game (1.9).
Widening the scope, those measures are similar through Peeke’s five-year NHL career, which doesn’t provide an evidence-based argument for staying in the lineup. That said, you can’t teach Peeke’s size (6-3, 214) and he’s still on the Jackets’ roster while David Jiricek (40 NHL games), Nick Blankenburg (49 NHL games) and Jake Christiansen (35 NHL games) are all in Cleveland for different reasons.
“The reality is that in all professional sports, there’s a lot of good players,” Peeke said. “We only have room for so many on the roster and in the lineup, and that’s the reality of it. There’s not much to think about. You just try and do what you do every day, and the rest will take care of itself.”
This isn’t a position Peeke anticipated after the past two seasons. In fact, it’s not even close. This is the first season of a three-year contract extension he signed as a restricted free agent with arbitration rights on Sept. 28, 2022, coming off his first full NHL campaign.
Peeke played all 82 games in 2021-22, during the first of two years on an extension he agreed to with a salary of $787,500 per year. His play during that contract earned him a $2 million raise at $2.75 million per year on his current deal.
With two years left, Peeke has become the Jackets’ seventh defenseman despite having the fifth-highest salary among blue-liners. He hasn’t played more than five games consecutively, was scratched in 22 of the Jackets’ first 26 games and appeared to be headed for another stretch of sitting out before Adam Boqvist took a puck in the mouth while seated on the bench Thursday in Calgary.
Boqvist was placed on injured reserve Saturday with an upper-body injury and Blankenburg was recalled from Cleveland to take his roster spot. Prior to that development, Zach Werenski’s return from injured reserve in Calgary had forced Peeke out of the lineup and Jiricek back to the AHL.
When the Jackets' defensemen are all healthy, however, Peeke has consistently lost the numbers game for ice time and role. It's been an educational experience for him.
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“The way this year’s gone, not playing every game and being in the stands for a few of them, I’m taking every game that I do play as a chance to continue proving myself,” Peeke said. “It’s a chance to show that I’m deserving of a lineup spot regularly and consistently.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Andrew Peeke challenged by lesser role for Blue Jackets
