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Ducks acquire Eric Brewer from Lightning for 3rd-round pick

Kim Klement / USA Today

The Anaheim Ducks have replaced recently-traded defenseman Bryan Allen!

In an unsexy depth trade, the Ducks announced the acquisition of veteran defender Eric Brewer from the Tampa Bay Lightning. In exchange, the Lightning will receive a 3rd-round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

The Lightning will retain 26 percent of Brewer's salary and cap-hit in the trade, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun. So the Lightning clear $2.8675 million of salary cap-space in the deal, while retaining $1,007,500 in dead salary cap-space. 

The Lightning now have two retained salaries on the books in Brewer and Arizona Coyotes forward Sam Gagner, which together count for $2.6075 million against the salary cap, according to capgeek.com.

NHL teams cannot retain more than three salaries at any given time, so the Lightning only have one more bullet in their retained salary transaction chamber for the balance of this season.

This transaction became something of a necessity for the Ducks because of an injury to shutdown defender Francois Beauchemin. It was announced Friday that Beauchemin will miss four-to-six weeks of action with a broken finger.

It was also announced Friday that defenseman Clayton Stoner will go on injured reserve. The third-pairing penalty-killing specialist has been diagnosed with the mumps.

Brewer will bolster the Ducks' depth, but he was a redundant piece in Tampa Bay. The veteran defender was playing third-pairing minutes for the Lightning this season and managed by far the worst shot attempt differential of any regular Lightning blue-liner. 

The Lightning had to clear a roster spot with injured cornerstone defender Victor Hedman set to return to the lineup as soon as this weekend. Trading Brewer and 74 percent of his salary cap-hit for a top-90 draft pick at the 2015 NHL Entry draft was preferable to exposing a promising young asset like Brett Connolly or Andrej Sustr to the waiver wire.

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