Montreal Canadiens: Jeff Petry Traded For Underwhelming Return

The Montreal Canadiens made a surprising move just over a week ago when they reacquired Jeff Petry from the Pittsburgh Penguins. They also added Casey DeSmith in a deal that was all about financials.

The San Jose Sharks and Penguins were trying to work out a deal to send Erik Karlsson back to the Eastern Conference but could not fit him under the Pens salary cap. So, they unloaded a couple of veteran players on the Canadiens who were happy to also receive a second round pick and prospect Nathan Legare in the deal.

The Habs also were able to send Mike Hoffman to the Sharks and Rem Pitlick to the Penguins in the deal so it made a lot of sense from a Habs perspective. They essentially took on a prospect and a pick for acquiring a salary dump, but also moved out more money than they took in. That is a tidy piece of business.

The latest Jeff Petry trade (since we are up to four trades all-time involving Petry and the Canadiens now) is a little more puzzling. The Habs moved him to the Detroit Red Wings for Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional fourth round pick in 2025. The Canadiens also retained 50% of Petry’s remaining contract which keeps them on the hook for about $2.3 million for each of the next two seasons.

For retaining that much money over multiple years, you would have expected the Habs to get a little more in return than a depth defenseman and a mid round draft pick.

Lindstrom is a 24 year old right shot defenseman who struggled to stay in the Red Wings lineup on a regular basis. He will immediately slot in behind David Savard, Justin Barron, Jonathan Kovacevic and probably Chris Wideman on the right side and may find himself sent to the Laval Rocket.

The Swedish defenseman was a second round pick of the Red Wings in 2017 and had eight points in 36 NHL games last season.

The fourth round pick that was acquired in the 2025 NHL Draft is the later of the Bruins and Red Wings picks.

It would appear there was not much of a market for Petry at this time. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes looks to have done him a bit of a favour and sent him to his home state of Michigan for very little in return.

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