Despite still being a young player, Andrew Peeke has been a member of the club for the past four seasons and has become a steady defenseman on the roster, playing 162 of a possible 164 games for the Blue Jackets during the last two campaigns.
Peeke is a hard-working player that brings a stable presence to the game. He has no trouble holding his own on the ice, standing at 6-foot-3 weighing in at 210 pounds, one reason he's been able to be so dependable despite finishing third in the NHL last year in blocked shots.
The Parkland, Fla., native spent three seasons at Notre Dame, where he earned the captain position during the 2018-19 season. A second-round pick by the Jackets (No. 34) in 2016, he made his NHL debut on Dec. 5, 2019, with the club.
Peeke met with BlueJackets.com on Friday after CBJ practice. The conversation has been edited for length.
First off, I have to ask since you went to school there, did you watch the OSU vs. Notre Dame football game last week? What did you think of it?
“Heartbreaking. I was speechless for a good 5-10 minutes just trying to figure out how that all played out. I was defeated.”
More importantly, how did you spend your summer?
“I was back in Florida all summer. There’s a good group of guys that are down there. A lot of the Russian guys go down there, (Kirill Marchenko) was down there for a bit. By August, there’s a good 20 guys or so that are in full skates, so that’s awesome. There’s a good group of us that have a good workout facility and we get our training in there. So, just in Florida, golfing, hanging by the beach, working out, skating and typical stuff.”
Your past two seasons here you’ve missed only two games in total, which is pretty incredible knowing how many injuries this squad has had. How have you been able to continually be a stable player on the roster?
“A big thing I always do is work on my anaerobic, or cardio, so that throughout the length of a season you can keep that up. Any time you’re tired or you’re not feeling 100 percent, that’s when you’re at most risk for injury. But there are just some things you can’t control, freak accidents and freak injuries and stuff. I work on my hips and back a lot, and a couple of those areas that connect everywhere, so I try to focus on that and make sure that’s always in good shape. And then I just play how I play and the rest figures itself out.”
So far, you’ve played in two preseason games, how did it feel to be back playing in a game-like setting? Do you feel like your summer training has paid off?
“It’s definitely paid off. Going through camp I’ve felt great so far, and I just keep going day-by-day. Camp is always going to be hard regardless of where you are, whatever organization. It’s camp, so it has to be kind of hard. That’s what the summer is for, you spend that time getting yourself ready for camp and getting yourself ready for the longevity of the season. Everything kind of adds up.”
Do you have any goals going forward toward the end of preseason and the beginning of the regular season?
“Individually I want to keep improving on where I’ve been the past two years, and continuing to grow as a player and as a person in the locker room, and all those aspects of it. For me, it’s just continuing to grow. As a defenseman you hear that word experience a lot and you feel that as you’re going through games, going through your second full year, you see a lot of different aspects of different players and stuff. So individually, I’ll just continue to grow with myself and play to my strengths. As a team, I think we’re all ready, we’re all refreshed. We have that energy like a spark that you can feel in the locker room. So I think we’re just ready to get things rolling and hopefully everything turns out the way we’re expecting it to.”
