The Islanders acquired defenseman Scott Perunovich from the Blues on Monday in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick, both clubs announced.
Perunovich, 26, slots into the Islanders’ blue line after righty Ryan Pulock landed on injured reserve this morning. His acquisition signals the latter is expected to miss significant time, so he and recent free-agent signing Tony DeAngelo now slot in to relieve the void left by Pulock and Noah Dobson, who’s week-to-week with a right leg injury.
While the 5’10” puck mover is a left shot, he has experience playing on his offside. New York will rely on that experience and presumably utilize him on the right, giving them another offensive option in addition to the historically one-dimensional DeAngelo.
A 2018 second-round pick, Perunovich was once one of the most highly-regarded defense prospects in the game. But after winning the Hobey Baker Award with 40 points in 34 games for Minnesota-Duluth in 2019-20, he missed his entire rookie campaign with St. Louis after undergoing left shoulder surgery. Wrist surgery limited him to 19 games with the Blues the following year, and yet another shoulder injury cut into his 2022-23 campaign. Throughout those three seasons, injuries limited Perunovich to just 58 games with the Blues and AHL Springfield.
While wholly healthy for the first time since college in 2024-25, Perunovich hasn’t found much playing time. He’s been a healthy scratch for about half the season, including the last nine games, and has only averaged 14:37 per game when in the lineup. He has six points and nine shots on goal in 24 games, adding 21 blocks and nine hits. The acquisition of Philip Broberg via offer sheet this summer as a young puck-moving lefty largely made Perunovich a redundancy heading into the campaign, so seeing him on the move is not entirely surprising.
He’s far from being the two-way presence Pulock is for the Isles, but he more accurately fills the void left by depth defender Mike Reilly, who remains on LTIR after undergoing heart surgery. He has 29 points in his 97 career NHL appearances but will be in line for a bump in minutes on Long Island, which both sides hope will boost his production.
Perunovich signed a one-year, $1.15MM extension with the Blues last June to avoid hitting restricted free agency. He’ll be an RFA again at season’s end and is arbitration-eligible.
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