Montreal Canadiens reportedly willing to trade former Edmonton Oilers defenceman Jeff Petry
By Zach Laing
2 years agoThere’s a former Edmonton Oiler that could be on the move: Jeff Petry.
According to Quebec Newspaper La Presse, new Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said the team might be open to dealing the rearguard.
“We told him: ‘We are aware of what is happening in your life. This is not the ideal context to play,’” Hughes said. “At the same time, you are part of this team. If there’s a chance it will work out on both sides to trade you, we’ll trade you. But until this situation arises, you are part of the Canadiens and you have to do your best.”
In the midst of one of the worst seasons in their storied 104-year history, the Habs sit with an 8-29-7 fresh off an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Oilers.
Petry, too, is having his struggles this year posting just seven points and a minus-seven rating — a massive drop from the 42-points and plus-six rating he put up in the 2021 campaign.
Just this last weekend, Petry was slammed for showing no emotion after Oilers forward Zack Kassian collided with goaltender Sam Montembeault.
Drafted by the Oilers in the second round of the 2006 draft, Petry, now 34, spent parts of five seasons in Edmonton between when he broke into the league in 2010, and his eventual trade in 2015. In 295 games in Edmonton, he scored 17 goals and 74 points. Over his 477 games in Montreal, he scored 65 goals and 227 points.
In Petry’s trade to the Habs, the Oilers acquired a 2015 2nd round pick later traded to the New York Rangers, and a 4th round pick that year used to select Caleb Jones.
This year marked the first of a four-year contract for Petry paying him an AAV of $6.25-million.
At the time, it was general manager Craig MacTavish who made the trade, something he later expressed remorse over.
“At the end of the day it was a pretty substantial mistake that I made not signing him to a long-term deal,” MacTavish said from his home in Lausanne, Switzerland via telephone. “He’s a great person, great character, hard-working guy and he’s played great. He’s a top-four defenceman all day long at this level and maybe slightly higher than that, and it wasn’t lost on us the improvement that he was making in his game. It wasn’t lost on ownership, either. We knew we might lose our best defenceman and that’s what happened. There’s a lot of questions obviously around that, but, to me, I give him all the credit in the world. He became a dominant player in the last half of the season that year. I’ve always regretted not signing him. I don’t regret a lot of things, but that’s one of them.”
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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