Potential suitor emerges for Jeff Petry trade

While few teams would have interest in a 35-year-old defender making more than $6M against the cap, Petry is certain to have plenty of market interest at a reduced price of $2.34M until 2025. As Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets and SDPN noted on an episode of his podcast, it makes sense Montreal would be willing to facilitate a deal. There’s a strong history between the player and team here – Petry played just over 500 games in a Canadiens uniform over parts of eight seasons, tallying 70 goals, 178 assists and 248 points while averaging 22:42 per game. Montreal honored his trade request last summer, shipping him to a team thought to be playoff-caliber at the time.

Obviously, it didn’t quite pan out. Petry himself had an acceptable season, scoring five goals, 26 assists and 31 points in 61 games and posting respectable possession metrics with a 51.5% Corsi for at even strength. Still, he was part of a quickly-aging core in Pittsburgh that sputtered last season, especially when it came to depth scoring. The Penguins missed out the postseason for the first time since 2006 and only the second time while Sidney Crosby’s been a member of the team.

That being said, Petry is still a good second-pairing defender and an excellent third-pairing option if his next team shelters his minutes further. The right-shot can routinely produce upwards of 40 points in a full season and, while he’s far from a shutdown defender, isn’t a liability in his own zone.

Per Johnston, the Dallas Stars are likely to emerge as a fit for his services. They’ve had rumored interest in Petry at multiple points over the past couple of seasons, and they’d been reportedly looking to add on defense earlier in the offseason. Like most other teams looking to contend for the Stanley Cup next season, though, it would require a fair amount of cap gymnastics to get a deal done, even with Petry’s bargain bin price.

The Stars are currently projected at $317.8K over the $83.5M Upper Limit for next season with a full 23-player roster, according to CapFriendly. Simply exposing veteran depth defenders Gavin Bayreuther and Joel Hanley to waivers and assigning them to the AHL would not clear the room to add Petry – they’d still need to clear about $1M to be cap-compliant. The only waiver-exempt player on the roster who could feasibly start the season in the minors is defenseman Thomas Harley, although Dallas would love to see him take on a larger NHL role this season. Wyatt Johnston also does not require waivers, but he’ll be sticking with the team in a top-nine role in 2023-24 after scoring 24 goals and 41 points during his rookie campaign last year. With that in mind, the Stars would likely need to ship a roster player back to Montreal in any prospective Petry trade to make a deal work or make a corresponding trade with another team.