The Detroit Red Wings acquired defenseman Jeff Petry from the Montreal Canadiens for Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional 4th round draft pick. Here’s what the regular media folks have to say about the deal:
A. MLive:
MLive’s Ansar Khan weighs in as follows:
Petry is a 6-3, 209-pound right-shooter. He is the son of former Detroit Tigers pitcher and current team TV analyst Dan Petry.
He gives the Red Wings another defenseman who can log 20 minutes a game (he has averaged more than 22 minutes during his career) and play in all situations, including the power play and penalty kill.
Petry joins a crowded Detroit defense featuring fellow right-shooters Moritz Seider and Justin Holl and left-shooters Jake Walman, Olli Maatta, Shayne Gostisbehere and Ben Chiarot.
The 13-year NHL veteran from Michigan State and Ann Arbor native has played 864 games, collecting 92 goals and 261 assists, along with a minus-119 rating. He played five-plus seasons in Edmonton and seven-plus seasons in Montreal. The Oilers drafted him in the second round in 2006 (45th overall).
Petry tallied 40 or more points in four consecutive seasons with the Canadiens from 2017-18 to 2020-21, including career highs of 13 goals and 46 points in 2018-19.
B. Detroit Free Press:
Helene St. James posted a first article discussing the facts of the deal, and a second article discussing the facets of the deal…
Petry, an Ann Arbor native who grew up in Farmington Hills, was acquired by sending Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens. Lindstrom, 24, was drafted 38th overall in 2017. He appeared in a career-high 63 games in 2021-22, but coach Derek Lalonde’s arrival last summer left Lindstrom on the outside looking in, and he played in just 36 games this past season. He didn’t appear to have much of a future with the team beyond as a depth player.
In Petry, the Wings gain a 6-foot-3, 209-pound veteran of 864 NHL games, who has posted in the double-digits in assists eight straight seasons. He had a career-high 23 power play points in 2017-18 as a member of the Canadiens. And with the Canadiens retaining 50% of Petry’s contract (which runs 2024-25 with a $6.25 million salary cap hit) and the Pittsburgh Penguins also retaining a chunk, the cap hit for the Wings over the next two seasons is $2,343,750.
…
Even with adding Petry and signing DeBrincat to a four-year, $31.5 million deal, the Wings still have around $6 million in salary cap space entering the 2023-24 season.
Training camp opens next month, and then comes exhibition season, which is when the coaching staff will sort out who plays with whom. But via trades — Petry, DeBrincat, and forward Klim Kostin — and via free agency — forwards J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer; defensemen Holl and Shayne Gostisbehere; goaltender James Reimer — the Wings appear to have the skill and depth to challenge for what would be their first playoff berth since 2016.
They look tougher (which needed to be addressed after those two embarrassing outings in Ottawa at the end of February, right before the trade deadline) and deeper, and Yzerman largely has accomplished that while leaving himself roster maneuverability and cap flexibility down the road.
C. Detroit News:
Ted Kulfan went with a short-form article:
Petry spent last season in Pittsburgh, where he had five goals and 26 assists, for 31 points in 61 games, and a plus-two rating, during an injury-filled season.
Petry spent the eight previous seasons in Montreal, and was traded to Pittsburgh last month, in a three-team deal that saw star defenseman Erik Karlsson head to the Penguins.
A right-shot defenseman who has always been known more for his offensive ability, Petry is steady in the defensive end and provides the Wings with fine depth and experience on the defensive end.
Petry is heading into the third year of a four-year contract worth $25 million ($6.25 million average annual value). Montreal will retain 50% of the remaining salary.
Lindstrom, 24, a 2017 second-round pick of the Wings, never was able to establish a consistent spot in the lineup. He had one goal and eight points in 36 games last season.
D. Detroit Hockey Now:
Kevin Allen discussed the ramifications down the roster:
After the deal, the Red Wings now have three right-hand veteran defensemen (Moritz Seider, Justin Holl and Petry) and four left-handed veterans (Jake Walman, Shayne Gostisbehere, Ben Chiarot and Olli Maatta). Gostisbehere and Chiarot have experience playing both sides.
If everyone is healthy, which of those players would be scratched? The truth is coach Derek Lalonde probably couldn’t answer that question today. These situations often are worked out by injuries or performance. It will be an important training camp for everyone on the defense.
The new Red Wings’ defensive alignment would seem to make it more difficult for top defensive prospect Simon Edvinsson to make the Detroit roster. However, Yzerman always says if a young player deserves to be on the roster he will find a way to make it happen. Plus, injuries are a frequent occurrence on NHL defenses.
The Canadiens recently reacquired Petry from the Pittsburgh Penguins to help facilitate the Penguins’ acquisition of Erik Karlsson. The Penguins dumped Petry’s salary, although they retained some of it. The Canadiens received a second-round pick in the deal. The Canadiens also ended up with goalie Casey DeSmith and Nathan Legare.
Giving up Lindstrom is not a significant loss for the Red Wings. European reports said Lindstrom playing in Europe, probably because he had not established him as a Detroit regular.
Petry (6-foot-3, 210 pounds) has always been a two-way defenseman. Last season, he put up five goals and 31 points. He was +2.
Lindstrom was considering his options, but nothing was really going on in terms of him going to Europe.
E. 97.1 the Ticket:
Will Burchfield also weighed in…
He’ll join a deep blue line in Detroit headlined by Moritz Seider and Jake Walman. Where Petry slots in remains to be seen, but he has a chance to play a consistent role. He turns 36 in December and his best years are behind him, but Petry played more than 22 minutes per night last season for a Penguins team that missed the playoffs by a single point.
A right-hand shot with a 6’3 frame, Petry could play on either of the two pairings behind Seider, opposite Olli Maatta, Ben Chiarot, free agent signing Shayne Gostisbhere or even rookie Simon Edvinsson. The Wings also have veteran Justin Holl, who they signed to a three-year, $10.2 million deal this summer, on the right side of the blueline. So at least one of their vets likely won’t make the opening night lineup.
Lindstrom, a second-round pick of the Red Wings’ former regime in 2017, played in just 36 games last season. Petry tallied 31 points in 61 games for Pittsburgh, which would have ranked second among Red Wings defensemen, while logging time on both the power play and penalty kill. He’s also played in 48 career playoff games and helped the Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2021.
F. The Athletic:
Arpon Basu, Rob Rossi and Max Bultman analyzed the Canadiens, Penguins and Red Wings’ perspectives regarding the deal:
What makes the deal a bit harder to understand, though, is the log jam Detroit now has on defense. That term can get overused at times, with the inevitability of injuries always lurking, but the Red Wings now have seven bona fide NHL regulars on the roster — players whose contracts and resumes make them hard to scratch. Perhaps more importantly, they also have a collection of young defensemen ready to start pushing for NHL minutes, headlined by 2021 No. 6 pick Simon Edvinsson. Obviously, this move — unless there’s more news coming — severely complicates his path to playing time, as well as that of Albert Johansson.
Petry may be the best of Detroit’s summer defense acquisitions, and could very well play a top-four role next season. At this trade price, it’s a nice addition. But when everyone’s healthy, do the Red Wings now sit Olli Määttä, who they just extended for two more seasons? Shayne Gostisbehere, who they brought in on a $4.125 million contract to help the power play? Or Ben Chiarot or Justin Holl, two of the three highest-paid defensemen, both of whom have three years remaining and are supposed to bring physicality and defense to the back end?
There’s no obvious answer, and that makes a perfectly reasonable — perhaps even desirable — trade acquisition into a confusing one in the grand scheme. — Bultman
G. The Hockey News:
Sam Stockton offered an analytical take on the deal:
Petry is far from a game-changing acquisition for the Red Wing blue line, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was an important player in the Canadiens’ unlikely run to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. Detroit wants to improve defensively, and if there’s one thing Petry still does well, it’s defend.
Between the acquisitions in successive summers of Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta, Justin Holl, Shayne Gostisbehere, and now Petry, it’s obvious that Steve Yzerman wants veteran defensemen on his blue line—whether it’s to contribute in the short term or to force young defenders like Simon Edvinsson to earn their eventual NHL roster spots.
For Edvinsson, Petry does represent another player to beat out to earn ice time at the NHL level in the coming season. Still, Lindstrom would have competed for those same minutes without the trade.
While this is speculative, I could also imagine that this deal was about Montreal general manager Kent Hughes (and maybe to some extent Steve Yzerman also) doing a favor to Petry by sending him back to his hometown team to close out his career.
H. ESPN:
ESPN’s Kristen Shilton also offers a good “national take“:
It was the third trade involving Petry over the past 13 months. This move came just 10 days after Montreal acquired Petry from Pittsburgh as part of the blockbuster three-team trade that sent reigning Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson from San Jose to the Penguins. The Canadiens took on 75% of Petry’s salary (Pittsburgh retained the other 25%), goaltender Casey DeSmith and prospect Nathan Legare in the deal.
That situation alone was a full-circle moment of sorts for Petry, who spent the bulk of his NHL career — over the course of eight seasons — patrolling Montreal’s blue line before the Canadiens traded him to Pittsburgh in July 2022. Petry recorded five goals and 31 points in 61 games for the Penguins last season.
While Petry is past his prime as a top-four blueliner, he still wields a solid defensive upside and projects to be a strong locker room presence for the Red Wings. And it’s a homecoming for Petry, too; a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Petry went on to spend three seasons suiting up for Michigan State before graduating to the pros.
Going the other way to Montreal is Lindstrom. A second-round draft choice by Detroit in 2017, Lindstrom, 24, has two goals and 25 points in 128 NHL games to date. He’ll add depth to the Red Wings’ back end heading into training camp.
