The Syracuse Crunch have acquired ahead Matthew Peca from the Springfield Thunderbirds in trade for defenseman Wyatt Newpower.
Peca, in his fifth season with the Thunderbirds and third as captain, has tallied eight objectives and 26 assists for 34 factors in 49 video games in 2025-26. He additionally competed for Crew Canada on the 2025 Spengler Cup event in Davos, Switzerland, recording one objective and one help in three video games.
Peca is on the second 12 months of a two-year AHL contracts signed with Springfield on Mar. 13, 2024. He returns to Syracuse, the place he spent his first three professional seasons and helped the Crunch attain the Calder Cup Finals in 2017.
Final season, Peca set profession highs with 31 objectives and 63 factors and was voted a First Crew AHL All-Star. He has totaled 124 objectives and 267 assists for 391 factors in 530 profession AHL video games with Springfield, Belleville, Laval and Syracuse.
Initially a seventh-round alternative by Tampa Bay within the 2011 NHL Draft, Peca has recorded six objectives and 15 assists for 21 factors in 83 profession NHL video games with the Lightning, Montreal, Ottawa and St. Louis.
Newpower is a sixth-year professional who has tallied two objectives and 6 assists in 44 video games between Syracuse and Iowa this season.
In 256 profession AHL video games with Syracuse, Iowa, Bridgeport, Grand Rapids and Cleveland, Newpower has recorded 13 objectives and 39 assists for 52 factors. He signed a one-year AHL take care of Iowa on July 1, 2025, and was acquired by the Crunch for future issues on Dec. 28, 2025.
