Montreal Canadiens
Stars Could Be Trade Partners For Canadiens Defenceman Petry
Now that the Montreal Canadiens have re-acquired Jeff Petry, the options regarding his future are starting to become clear.
General manager Kent Hughes is in no rush to move Petry, a logical approach given that the defenceman still holds a decent amount of value in the NHL, especially if the Canadiens decide to retain a percentage of his salary.
MUST READ: Montreal Canadiens Have Many Options In Jeff Petry Case
However, if the team does want to move him as soon as possible, they may be able to find a dance partner in the Western Conference. According to hockey insider Chris Johnston, the Dallas Stars have shown interest in acquiring the 35-year-old defenceman in the past.
“In my eyes, Petry was probably the best pure asset [they’re getting] in the deal,” said Johnston during the most recent episode of the CJ Show. “Simply because, if they now retain 50 percent of his contract in a deal, he’s only slightly more than a $2 million defenceman. At that price, even at his age, I think a lot of teams will look at that as a positive thing.”
If the Canadiens are inclined, a 50 percent salary retention would lead to Petry only accounting for a $2.35 million salary cap hit next season, a rather enticing number given his pedigree.
“A team to keep an eye on is Dallas,” said Johnston. “I know they’re a team that has had interest in Jeff Petry over the last couple of years. The Stars, like a lot of teams in the league, don’t have endless cap space. There’s been a multitude of reasons why they haven’t been able to act on a trade prior to now. All of the sudden, the conditions are in place. Maybe the trade doesn’t happen by training camp, maybe it doesn’t happen by the start of the regular season. But certainly, in these next few months, the Canadiens can look at what’s out there for Petry, and whether it makes sense to move him or not.”
As it stands, the Stars are in a complicated salary cap situation. They’re currently over the salary cap, which is allowed during the offseason, but the fact remains that they’d have to perform some financial juggling to include Petry’s contract, even if the Canadiens agree to retain up to 50 percent.
When it comes to a potential return, the Stars have several talented young players, but it’s doubtful that Petry would yield a significant return in the form of an elite prospect.
Regardless of whether the Stars do end up trading for Petry, the mere fact that they have shown interest in the past, at a time when his salary cap hit was much higher, is an encouraging sign when it comes to unloading the Canadiens’ former alternate captain.
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Absolutely NO to retaining 50% of his salary – for two more seasons! Not unless we get an unprotected 2024 1st rd pick back. No desperation, please…
Didn’t we just see this in an article yesterday:
If for some reason the Montreal Canadiens cannot find any suitors without retaining salary, keeping Petry in the lineup is also a feasible option.
He would improve the team’s game in transition while also providing a solid partner for many of the young defencemen developing on the left side of the ice. In addition, it gives right-handed defencemen such as Justin Barron and Logan Mailloux a little more time to improve upon their weaknesses in a pressure-free environment before their permanent ascension to the NHL.
The greatest benefit, however, would come in the lead-up to the 2024 NHL trade deadline.
By then, his salary cap hit will be inconsequential, essentially ensuring that every single team looking to bolster their blueline prior to the playoffs could afford to add someone Petry to their lineup. Teams tend to pay a premium for right-handed defencemen, one of the hottest commodities in the NHL.
In this case, the Montreal Canadiens do not immediately move Petry, which means they will have to keep him in the lineup for longer than expected.
And that’s perfectly fine.
Considering the cap crunch in Dallas (Petry’s wife’s family is from Texas btw), perhaps there’s someone on an expiring contract in Dallas that we take back along with a better return than if we just traded Petry with salary retained? If we took back a bad contract that expires this year, then retaining salary wouldn’t be necessary and Dallas could fit him in at his present cap hit. Ideally, we don’t go that route as the whole point of this off-season was to clear out bodies to open spots for the kids. I still think the most likely scenario is we trade him (prior to the season starting) with salary retained and receive compensation in the form of draft picks (because we don’t have room for bodies).
His Family is the Goal, Not Hers.
His Family are DET Sports Icons and very involved in their community.
The same cannot be said to Texas Which i remember Julie saying she hasnt visited in years as they bring her family up to Detroit.
IF he would have accepted a deal to DAL
It woulda already been done in deal for Faksa a Center PIT coulda actually used.
Instead nothing came of it and MTL the last place many expected was Jeff’s landing spot
That said DET might take him no Retained Salary if we took Chiarot back.
We’d take an extra year of term at the same cap hit roughly at 4.7m If
DET Retained 25% on Chiarot taking 1.1/4.7m for 3.6m
We’re good with bringing Chiarot back and Hughes did say he tried but not for 4.7m was he willing to sign him .We dont really got the room but Matheson still isnt activated of his last Injury even though basically everyone else was by July 1st. We also can send Barron to the AHL as at every level he starts off ice cold until mid november. By TDL its likely 1/2 of Savard or Kovacevic will be gone.
I wouldnt do it for Free but if they’ll RS similar to PIT in the Petry deal
I’d take a similar return with a 2nd , Roster Player and AHL Prospect under 23.
I think we can easily find a deal where we’re not stuck taking a player back. The main goal here is to move bodies out, not bring any back in. We don’t even need throw-in players like Legare. Not sure who felt the need to minus your comment, but I think we have better options.
I agree. Dealing Petry to Det to take back Chariot is a lateral move. One vet D out, another vet D in. Accomplishes nothing in the short term. And if you twist my arm, I’ll tell you Petry is better, so why make that trade unless something else comes our way. Don’t see this happening. Better off keeping Petry, as least to start the season.
Habs don’t need another left shot D man. Chariot doesn’t make sense
Right, I forgot Ben was a LD.
I agree Tyrone. The Canadiens are still in a rebuilding phase and need to give their young players more ice time. Draft picks are the best option. Personally, I would like to see Montreal take the money that they would be paying Jeff Petry and hire more scouts. Now is the time to invest in more R and D in order to draft more quality players. The Habs should pouch some high end scouts from other organizations while they are still rebuilding.
I’ve felt that forever too. The best way to build a champion is draft star players. There are tons of examples of teams finding top line talent later in the draft. The trick is to do it with any kind of consistency. There seem to be teams that pull that off more than others. Those are the guys to poach away. I’ve always felt if you pay scouts higher than any other team, they’ll flock to us. They don’t count towards the cap and being one of the wealthiest franchises, we can definitely afford it. It’s also in the GM’s best interest to build a star studded scouting department, because those are the guys that make the GM look like a genius. So far HuGo have looked very smart in trades and contract negotiations. The drafting right now is still up in the air. Drafting all the goalies this year was terrible imo. Taking Reinbacher over Michkov and Slafkovsky over Wright could blow up in their faces or look like pure genius. Time will tell. If it was a fail, no one will remember the trades or contracts. They’re only going to remember the whiffs on the 2 most important draft picks in the past 30+ years. Look at Bergevin. He was a master at trades, but drafting & developing were his downfall.
Tyrone,
First, Vegas just won the cup…not by drafting star players, but by managing their cap well, making great trades, AND proper FA signings. You win a cup with ALL facets working. One isn’t that much more important that the others. They are all more or less equal in importance.
If both Rein and Slaf turn out to be great players, but Mich and Wright turn out better – who cares! I don’t. If all the other facets I just mentioned are done properly, then it won’t matter which draft picks were better…
Second, I don’t think Hugo has been “all that” regarding trades. The Newhook and Lek deals are highly questionable at this point (at best), trading Dadanov for essentially nothing was a loss, and please don’t tell me he won the Toffoli trade (that was a loss – full stop).
Finally, Bergy made plenty of trades that did NOT work out for the Habs (start with Dvorak). And conversely, he did make several outstanding draft picks – especially over the past few years. Last I checked, he drafted C.C., RHP, Ylonen, Harris, Guhle, Farrell, Kidney, Roy, Mailloux. Its possible every one of these players will be on the same Habs team within a year or two – and all may be really good.
I understand there are exceptions to the trades and drafts for both guys. I was generalizing because I didn’t want to write an entire manifesto critiquing the qualities of every aspect of both management teams. I too hate the Toffoli trade (and was vocal about it). I wasn’t a fan of the Lehkonen trade either. Obviously Bergevin flubbed the Sergachev trade, so there’s a million things that can be said about both groups, but in general, my comments support the point I was making.
The Stars are under the cap by exactly $457,171.
Not that it matters, as there is zero interest in Petry. He’s all yours, Montreal!