Montreal Canadiens: Jeff Petry Trade Will Help Habs In Free Agency For Years To Come

The Montreal Canadiens made a couple of trades in the month of August, which is usually as quiet a month as a hockey fan can find on the calendar.

Both of those trades involved Jeff Petry, who was traded away to the Pittsburgh Penguins a year ago after requesting a deal out of Montreal and into the United States where Petry and his wife could be closer to family. Jeff and Julie have three young boys, and anyone with children can attest that it is incredibly helpful to be close to family when raising young kids, especially a trio of rowdy boys.

The fact that Petry landed back with the Canadiens, however briefly, was a big surprise. The deal was really made so that the Penguins could acquire Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks. They didn’t have the cap room so they needed to move out Petry and the Canadiens were happy to step in and facilitate the deal from a financial perspective.

But it left Petry, and general manager Kent Hughes in an awkward spot. It is like when you were a kid and your parents sent you upstairs to clean your room, only to spot you walking back down the stairs about 30 seconds later. Both of you know you aren’t supposed to be there and someone has a little explaining to do.

Well, apparently Hughes told Petry that he would work quickly to facilitate a trade for Petry to an American team. He promised he would not hold out for weeks to try and get a slightly higher return, or wait until training camp so that Petry had to bring his family north and worry about what country his kids would be attending school.

Instead, Hughes shipped Petry out, with half of his salary retained, to the Detroit Red Wings for Gustav Lindstrom and a fourth round draft pick. On its own, the trade is not a great one for the Habs. Had the Red Wings taken on the full salary cap hit maybe the deal makes sense, but with the Canadiens holding on to nearly $2.5 million in cap space for the next two seasons, it seemed like a bigger return was necessary.

Alas, Hughes made his calls quickly and took the best return he could get immediately. While this may have cost the Habs a chance at a future second round pick instead of a fourth, it will still pay off in the long run.

The Canadiens are not necessarily every player’s most desired location to play hockey. Blame it on taxes, weather or customs agents but Montreal is just not at the top of every free agent’s list. Many players put all of Canada on their no-trade clauses.

But Montreal could start to become an exception with Hughes showing he is very human and not just a robot looking at stats and salaries and running his team like its a video game and his players are not real people.

Maybe, just maybe, a player or two out there take the Canadiens off their no-trade list because they realize if things don’t work out here, Hughes will take their off-ice concerns into account and find them a place to play that works better for them

Or, perhaps a free agent or two decide to join the Canadiens and play in Montreal even though there are sunnier climes out there, because they know the general manager is going to treat them fairly and help them do what is best for their families.

The second (or I suppose it is the third) Jeff Petry trade involving the Canadiens may not have been a home run from a dollars and cents and points perspective. However, the goodwill that comes from it is sure to have players rethinking their avoidance of Montreal as trade targets and free agents in the coming years.

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