With an extremely thin free agent market opening on Tuesday, the Bruins turned to the trade front to bolster their forward corps.

With the Edmonton Oilers needing to dump salary after signing defenseman Evan Bouchard to a four-year deal at $10.5 million, the B’s the Oil for a 2027 fifth round pick for 32-year-old wing Viktor Arvidsson, who has one year left at $4 million.

The aging Arvidsson had one of his better seasons in 2022-23 for the Los Angeles Kings, when he had 26-33-59 totals in 77 games. But a back injury limited him to just 18 games the following season and last summer he signed a two-year deal with the Oilers, who hoped he would be one of the missing depth links to get Edmonton past the Florida Panthers. Arvidsson, a right shot who plays on the left side and is a volume shooter, wound up having a so-so season with 15-12-27 totals in 67 games. In 15 playoff games, he had 2-5-7.

It’s not a move that will, or should, excite any fans that were hoping for a blockbuster that would put their team right back into contention. But for a deal that is short on commitment from the Bruins’ end, it helps fill out the middle part of the roster and, if Arvidsson can stay healthy, should help make the team competitive at least. At the very least, he could be trade bait if the B’s do fall out of playoff contention.

Arvidsson’s three years in Los Angeles overlapped with new B’s coach Marco Sturm’s time in the organization. Sturm was an assistant coach on the LA staff in Arvidsson’s first season there before Sturm took over the head job with the Kings’ AHL affiliate.

The move leaves the B’s with approximately $8 million in cap space.

The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Arvidsson was originally drafted by the Nashville Predators and had back-to-back 61-point season in 2016-17 and ‘17-18.