Peter Chiarelli isn’t standing pat after all. As a matter of fact, the Bruins GM was up in the wee hours of Monday morning to finish his first transaction prior to the 3 pm trade deadline.

In Chiarelli’s first move Monday, he acquired Brett Connolly from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for the Bruins’ 2015 and 2016 second round picks.

With an abundance of young talent in Tampa, Connolly was expendable. In 50 games this season, the 22-year old already notched a career high 12 goals and his 15 points also ties a career high set during his rookie season in 2011-12.

In 134 career games, Connolly has 32 points (18 goals, 14 assists) and was mainly used as a bottom six forward for the uber skilled Tampa squad. He’ll likely have an expanded role when he suits up for the Black and Gold.

“He’s a player we kind of looked at for a while. They’ve got a lot of right wings in Tampa and it kind of loosened up last night so we jumped on it,” Chiarelli said about Connolly on BostonBruins.com. “It got done early [Monday] morning. But he’s a guy that we think can come in and help us right away and still could have a long future for us.”

Instant analysis: His stats may not be eye popping, but I like this move. Connolly (a pending RFA with an $851,000 cap hit this season) was the sixth overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, so the Lightning must have saw something in him. He may not have lived up to his potential down in Tampa, but a change of scenery can serve a purpose for the former Prince George Cougar. For a young guy that still has some potential he B’s didn’t have to give up much for him – compared to some of the other moves teams have made for rental players like Erik Cole and Antoine Vermette, just to name a few. Plus, this opens up some more options for Chiarelli to add some players, but it will likely result in him sending Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith or Carl Soderberg elsewhere, especially if he wants to add depth on the blue-line.