The Montreal Canadiens had a great 2014-2015 season winning the Atlantic Division’s championship two points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning helped by GM Marc Bergevin’s trade deadline acquisitions. Quite a few trade deadlines were disappointing during his tenure, but the 2014-2015 was anything but so.
No, I’m not talking about the acquisitions of Torey Mitchell and Brian Flynn, but about Jeff Petry’s. The 28-year-old top four defenseman was one of the big prizes of the day even if he was on an expiring contract.
The Trade
The Edmonton Oilers were on the cusp of drafting Connor McDavid and were getting ready for a big draft. They needed future assets and Bergevin was willing to give them a couple. To pry the top-four blueliner away from the Oilers, the GM sent two 2015 draft picks over to Alberta. A second-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick which became a fourth-round selection with the Canadiens’ first round win over the Ottawa Senators.
The Aftermath
Edmonton traded the second-round pick to the New York Rangers to land goaltender Cam Talbot who had posted fantastic numbers in his two seasons in Manhattan as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. His four-season stay in Edmonton wouldn’t be as successful however.
As for the fourth-round pick, the Oilers used it to select defenseman Caleb Jones who has yet to truly establish himself as an NHL player and is now in the Colorado Avalanche organization.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, Petry finished the regular season with the Canadiens, putting up seven points in 19 games and played 12 games in the playoffs, adding another three points to his name. In the post-season, he was second in shots taken by defenseman behind P.K. Subban and had proven himself very useful to the team.
As a result, Bergevin decided to make him a contract offer before he was able to test the market in free agency. Petry put pen to paper on a six-year deal with an average annual value of $5.5 M. Once that contract expired, he chose to re-up with the Habs for another four years, but the COVID-19 pandemic would throw a spanner in the works.
In the end, Petry spent eight years in Montreal and blossomed into a real offensive weapon. When Shea Weber was down with injuries, he would step in and shoulder the load. Furthermore, when the Canadiens made their surprise run to the Stanley Cup final in 2021 he was a minute muncher on the blueline and a real asset to the team.
The Beginning of the End
Unfortunately, the strict Canadian travel restrictions imposed because of the pandemic resulted in the Petry family moving back home in Detroit rather than staying in Montreal with the Habs player.
Without his family around, Petry’s play plummeted and he barely looked like a shadow of himself. Missing his family, the blueliner requested a trade. Plenty of fans will no doubt bring up his lack of reaction when an opponent took some liberties with Canadiens’ netminder Samuel Montembeault, but that was one blemish on an otherwise pretty impressive stay in Montreal.
That’s how the defenseman left town a few months later after newly appointed GM Kent Hughes was able to find a deal that made sense for both team and player, but that’s a story for another time. Whichever way you look at it though, this first Petry trade was without a shadow of a doubt a win for the Canadiens and a lengthy one at that considering the return he brought when traded.
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