Montreal Canadiens: Is Jeff Petry Dallas Bound?

It has indeed been a while since i’ve posted Montreal Canadiens content on A Winning Habit and folks, it’s great to be back. So let’s get right at it with one of the hotter topics on this side of the St Lawrence River.

The rumors surrounding the status of Jeff Petry have spread like wildfire since his absolute nonchalance vis-a-vis the Zack Kassian hit on Samuel Montembeault. Ken MacMillan has posted a fantastic article listing five potential destinations for Petry and his $6.25 million cap hit and the Dallas Stars were one of them along with the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Nashville Predators and the Florida Panthers.

While going to Detroit makes sense on a “going back home” case, it doesn’t make much sense for Steve Yzerman to go after Petry at this point in the Red Wings’ rebuild. However, there are lots of noise going on in Dallas and the fit is almost perfect.

The Stars are looking for a spark in order to start climbing up the standings in order to grab a wild card spot and make the playoffs, but more importantly, they have been seriously looking into getting that Top 4 right handed defenceman to compliment Miro Heiskanen. A Heiskanen-Petry duo can do wonders for both players, especially if the Petry family as a whole are happy in the Lone Star State, which wouldn’t be difficult considering that Jeff’s wife Julie is originally from Houston.

As Ken MacMillan suggested, Mavrik Bourque could be a possibility in a potential trade. That being said, I sincerely doubt the 2020 1st round pick will be had that easily and I doubt the Canadiens will start adding draft picks in order to obtain Bourque, especially since a rebuild is imminent.

Petry’s value is shady at best. On one hand you will have GM’s looking at his past and see a solid and consistent veteran who showed flashes of a Norris Trophy effort. On the other hand, other GM’s will see a veteran who snubbed his team, lost his letter and let his wife run rampant on social media criticizing town and country over the way COVID-19 has been handled. Jim Nill however, is not one to shy away from players with shoddy history with the current likes of Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov and Ryan Suter just to name a few.

That being said, the only name that would make sense in return for the Montreal Canadiens comes in the name of another disgruntled defenceman: John Klingberg.

Klingberg openly requested a trade from Dallas stating that he is unhappy there and flat out refuses to negotiate a new contract. Also getting Klingberg in return would immediately fill the void left by Petry and if he can find his footing again, can be an upgrade over the current #26.

The only way however that this can work is through either a sign and trade deal or if Dallas adds a conditional draft pick to the deal. Condition of course being if Klingberg re-ups with Montreal or not.

Klingberg is currently on the final year of 7 year $29.75 million at a $4.25 million cap hit. This year however, Klingberg has an actual salary of $6 million, which would likely be the starting point of any negotiation. Don’t be shocked if he fetches upwards to $8 million on the open market, even with the salary cap likely to stay put in the upcoming season.

With Jake Allen likely out until late March, Carey Price’s status being an enigma and Samuel Montembeault playing injured, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Anton Khubodin’s name thrown into the mix now that he’s been dumped in the minors in favor of Braden Holtby and Jake Oettinger.

Would you like to see John Klingberg in the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge? Comment below!