WILMINGTON — The Boston Bruins just announced before this morning’s practice session at Ristuccia Arena that 29-year-old forward Rich Peverley, whose contract was set to expire at the end of this season, was signed to a three-year extension through the 2014-15 season.

Here is the release the Bruins put out this morning:.

BOSTON, MA – Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has signed forward Rich Peverley to a three-year contract extension through the 2014-15 season. The 29-year-old Peverley was acquired by the Bruins with Boris Valabik from the Atlanta Thrashers on February 18, 2011 for Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler. In 23 games with the Bruins last season, he notched 4-3=7 totals in the regular season and went on to add 4-8=12 totals during the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup championship run. For the full year split between Atlanta and Boston, Peverley skated in 82 regular season games with 18 goals and 23 assists for 41 points. He has not missed a game over the last two-plus seasons. This season, Peverley has appeared in three games for the Bruins and has a team-high two goals. Peverley set a career high in goals and assists during the 2009-10 season as a member of the Thrashers when he registered 22 goals and 33 assists for 55 points. For his career, Peverley has played in 276 regular season NHL games with Boston, Atlanta and Nashville and has 151 points on 60 goals and 91 assists. The native of Guelph, Ontario played four years of college hockey at St. Lawrence University and graduated with a degree in Economics. He was originally signed by the Nashville Predators as a free agent on January 17, 2007 before being claimed off waivers by Atlanta on January 10, 2009.

Chiarelli just met with the media to discuss to the signing of Peverley.

Here’s his take on Peverley’s contract extension:

“Maybe we waited a little bit longer in signing some guys who are potential UFAs, but he’s got speed, a good shot and he’s still relatively young in the grander schemes. He’s just a guy we wanted to have in our mix for the next four years. Sometimes there’s a fine line between the top six or seven or eight. We always felt he was in that mix before we got him. We liked the way he fit into our group. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be in that top six for the rest of the year, but I like to think of our top three lines as three equal lines. But I like his speed and I like his grit for his skill package, I like the way his speed backs up the D and I think he’s made us a faster team.”

The Bruins have taken the ice at Ristuccia Arena. The first-liners of Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic and David Krejci were the first to take the ice . . . The team will conduct a practice session then travel to Raleigh, N.C., Carolina for Wednesday night’s game against the Hurricanes (0-2).