NHL Rumors: Canadiens Defenseman Comments on Trade Request

The Montreal Canadiens were a tale of two teams this season. One team that came out with a Stanley Cup Final hangover and couldn't get the job done early on in the season. The other team was led by head coach Martin St Louis who went into Montreal and totally changed the vibe and now the team is looking forward to a bounce-back season in 2022-23. This holds especially true for defenseman Jeff Petry who requested a trade early on in the season and it turns out he's open to sticking around.

Petry informed John Lu of TSN last week he's no longer closed the door on the Canadiens and is open to seeing where things go. Petry couldn't do much early on this season as his first 40 games were something to forget. He was able to turn around his production under the leadership of St Louis as the right-handed defenseman finished with 21 points in his final 28 games.

Petry is signed through the 2024-25 season at $6.25 million per season. He submits a 15-team trade list of teams he's not interested in playing for, so any move would have been a complicated one to say the least. The 6-foot-3 blueliner is creeping up their in age and carries a big ticket so trying to move him this offseason after a down season would have been tremendously hard and likely would have left Montreal retaining salary. Now, everyone has seen the production is still within grasp and Petry will look to carry the load for the Canadiens back end next season.

Photo credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports