NHL Rumors: 2 Trade Destinations For Canadiens' Jeff Petry



The Montreal Canadiens don't appear to be anywhere close to being done moving pieces as they are fully committing to a rebuild. A name that won't stop coming up is defenceman Jeff Petry. Pierre LeBrun reports that the Canadiens are still working on moving Petry and the Dallas Stars remain interested, while the Detroit Red Wings are also a potential destination for him.

Petry has three more years left on his contract at a $6.25 million cap hit. At age 34 and after a season where he significantly declined after four consecutive strong 40+ point seasons in Montreal, the Canadiens will likely have to eat some of the money. They have more than enough cap space to do so.

Dallas Stars

The Stars are set to lose one of their best defencemen in John Klingberg in free agency. It was made known he wasn't happy in Dallas as the team gave out two significant contracts on the back-end to Miro Heiskanen and Ryan Suter. Some of the money that was expected to be spent on keeping Klingberg around was allocated to Suter for three more seasons at $3.65 million.

Klingberg is very good offensively and will be able to run any team's power play. Petry has also proven he can be impactful offensively as he recorded four consecutive 10+ goal, 40+ point seasons for the Canadiens before a disaster year all around for him and the team. But under new head coach Martin St. Louis, he picked up his game. The Stars would require the Canadiens to retain some salary, but Petry would be able to fit in nicely in the top-4 for the Stars and he wouldn't be under contract for too long.

Detroit Red Wings

As a newer team that appears to be in the mix, Steve Yzerman knows what he's doing in assembling a team. He did so in Tampa Bay and has made significant strides in Detroit already with the likes of Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, and more.

The team made a big step forward from the previous season, but need players signed and players who can help change the culture of being an easy team to score against. Petry, an experienced defenceman, will be able to help with that and add a much-needed veteran presence on the back-end for a few seasons while the Red Wings attempt to gain traction as a team in the strong Atlantic Division.

Unlike the Stars, the Red Wings have tons of cap space and would be able to take the full contract of Petry, giving up less in return. They will be looking to start to move out of a rebuild with more of their young players adjusting to the NHL.

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