Peeke challenged by lesser role for Jackets
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It’s been a challenging season for Andrew Peeke.
Going into Saturday’s faceoff with the Vancouver Canucks, the Blue Jackets defenseman had played in just 17 games this season. He had missed only two combined the previous two years.
But this year, 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.
“The biggest (challenge) 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 has no goals, six assists and a -4 plus/minus rating in limited time this season, and 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%), goalsfor percentage (45.2%), expected goalsfor percentage (37.2%), scoring chances (40.1%), high-danger scoring chances (34.4%) and high-danger goals-for percentage (33.3%)
He is, however, third among Blue
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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. 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.
His play leading up to that extension earned him $2.75 million per year, a $2 million raise from his prior contract.
That means, with two years left, Peeke has become the Jackets’ seventh defenseman despite having the fifthhighest salary among blue-liners. He hasn’t played more than five games consecutively, was scratched in 22 of the
Jackets’ first 26 games and, barring a significant injury, Peeke could be headed for another lengthy stretch of sitting out.
“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.” bhedger@dispatch.com @Brianhedger