BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Bruins obtained Paul Mara from the Phoenix Coyotes for Nick Boynton on Monday in a trade of defensemen.

The Bruins also received their choice of Phoenix’s third-round pick in the 2007 or 2008 draft and gave up a fourth-round choice next year.

Mara, who agreed to terms of a two-year contract with the Bruins, is more of an offensive player than Boynton, “plays a lot of minutes in all situations and his style of play fits today’s game” with an emphasis on speed and skating ability, Bruins interim general manager Jeff Gorton said.

Mara, 26, has played seven NHL seasons, starting with Tampa Bay at the end of 1998-99. He was traded to Phoenix in March 2001 and spent the last four full seasons there. He had career highs of 15 goals and 47 points in 78 games last season and has scored 52 goals and 178 points in 424 career games.

Boynton, 27, had five goals and 12 points in 54 games last season.

The Bruins also made qualifying offers to their top two scorers, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Boyes, and seven other players on Monday, giving the team the right to match any offers they receive as restricted free agents.

Six others who received offers were defensemen Andrew Alberts, Milan Jurcina and David Tanabe, forwards Nathan Robinson and Martin Samuelsson, and goalie Jordan Sigalet. Boynton also received a qualifying offer before the trade and goalie Andrew Raycroft was sent one before being sent to Toronto on Saturday.

If the Bruins don’t match any offer the players receive, the club would receive a draft pick from the team that signs them.

Brian Eklund, Ivan Huml, Josh Langfeld and Pat Leahy will become unrestricted free agents on July 1 after not receiving qualifying offers from the Bruins.

Players who were signed for last season and are younger than 29 or have been in the NHL less than eight seasons must receive qualifying offers if a team wants to prevent them from becoming unrestricted free agents.

AP-ES-06-26-06 2016EDT