One of the few remaining “name” players in this summer’s unrestricted free agent pool has found a new home, with the most unlikely team.

Center Michael Peca signed late Tuesday evening (August 21st) with the Columbus Blue Jackets. No financial details were disclosed but it’s a one-year contract said to be incentive-laden. Peca was believed earlier this summer seeking a $1.25 million contract from either the Toronto Maple Leafs or the New York Rangers so it’s a good assumption the deal will be in that neighborhood.

No one foresaw Peca signing with the Blue Jackets a week ago. If anything, he was expected by late last Friday to be close to donning the New York Rangers’ blue shirt, not a blue jacket.

The Rangers had met with Peca last week and put him through a team medical and it was thought that a contract signing was just a matter of course. This after his earlier attempt to re-sign with the Leafs fell through due (it’s believed) to the team’s inability to free up sufficient cap space for his salary.

But by Monday his agent had yet to hear from Rangers general manager Glen Sather, forcing him to issue the team an ultimatum to sign his client by Tuesday night or else Peca would consider other options.

According to the New York Daily News the Rangers never made a contract offer to Peca, which leads one to wonder whether Sather and company had second thought about adding another forward at the possible expense of their blueline depth, where the Rangers are considered thin heading into this coming season.

The Jackets were forced into the free agent market late last week when Russian center Alex Svitov bolted back home by signing a contract with Avangard Omsk, leaving the Jackets lacking a good third line center.

Peca is no longer the perennial Selke candidate he once was during his heyday with the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders, but he’s still an experienced two-way center who if he can stay healthy could provide that much-needed depth for the Jackets forward lines.

Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock thinks very highly of Peca, having coached him for Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Peca’s gritty style and work ethic makes him a Hitchcock-type player, and as the Columbus Dispatch noted Tuesday night announcing the signing Peca will likely see plenty of minutes this season.