The Canadian | Is there a market for Jeff Petry?

We have known for months that Jeff Petry’s file is the least convenient of all those that Kent Hughes has to settle. The last two weeks have done nothing to improve the situation.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

It’s that the price to drop salary seems to follow the same trajectory as the Tyrolean in The Price is Right – without the legendary song, however. It constantly rises.

Here are the most recent transactions involving players with heavy contracts.

PLAYER (CONTRACT TO EXPIRE)

Brent Burns (3 years at $8 million per season)

The San Jose Sharks traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes for a 3 pick^e turn, 23-year-old fringe player and goaltender Eetu Makiniemi, who has 14 games of American League experience. So they didn’t give it away, but to get a draft pick and a draft in goal, they had to withhold 33% of Burns’ salary. At 37, the tall bearded man is no longer what he was, but he remains a right-handed colossus who has just passed the 50-point mark and played 26 minutes per game.

Max Pacioretty (1 year to $7 million)

Stuck under the ceiling, the Vegas Golden Knights had to resort to giving Pacioretty to the Hurricanes, along with a backup defenseman, in exchange for later compensation, the good old “future considerations.” We recall here that Pacioretty has only one year of contract left, that the former Canadian is 33, not 43, and that he has produced one point per game for three years (154 points in 158 games). Not exactly a cannonball.

Ryan McDonagh (4 years at $6.75 million per season)

The Tampa Bay Lightning were also suffocating under the cap and so traded McDonagh to the Nashville Predators for an American League fringe player (Grant Mismash) and Philippe Myers, an overpaid defenseman for his performance. We recall that McDonagh played 22 minutes per game this season with the Stanley Cup finalists. And while we’re on the subject, McDonagh is 2^e among active players with 185 playoff games, although he is not yet in his mid-thirties. He certainly doesn’t have to be that ugly.

In Philadelphia, the Flyers were trying, like the Canadian, to offload wages. The name of James van Riemsdyk (1 year, 7 million) has come up often, and was even mentioned in a question to general manager Chuck Fletcher, who was meeting local media on Wednesday. In that same question, the reporter asked Fletcher if it’s true that he was willing to offer a first-round pick for a rival to accept a hefty contract.

“I’ve spoken to several teams lately about getting some flexibility,” Fletcher said. I looked at different options, but the price to trade some contracts was very high, sometimes higher than what you just indicated. »

Petry and the others

Which brings us back to Hughes. The general manager of the Canadian has found different formulations to speak of Petry, who wishes to leave Montreal in particular for family reasons.

Petry has three years left on his contract, at $6.25 million per season. It’s a lighter contract than those of Burns and McDonagh, but the number 26 is also an inferior player to the other two.

In mid-June, Hughes made it clear he “has no intention” of using one of his many draft picks to trade him.

Then, last week, he used an ingenious formulation: “We must have the conviction that by exchanging him, we will prioritize the interests of the Montreal Canadiens. »

This formulation has the merit of giving it more flexibility. He can then very well judge, by dint of attempting trades, that it is “in the interest” of the team to attach an incentive to Petry to favor a market.

The solution could also be, as the San Jose Sharks did with Brent Burns, to withhold part of Jeff Petry’s salary.

For illustrative purposes, let’s assume the Habs withhold $1.5 million from Petry’s salary; the team that would acquire him would therefore have the defender at 4.75 million per season, for three years.

On the other hand, colleague Eric Engels reported Wednesday that the Canadian was “very reluctant” to withhold salary in a transaction for Petry.

In the meantime, Hughes has his hands tied. He only handed out two-part contracts on Wednesday because he doesn’t have the flexibility to do more. Note, however, that his press briefing, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed to Thursday, precisely because he was still at work.

But in the current market, it’s hard to see how he’ll get rid of Petry or any heavy contract without sacrificing anything. Unless he does like Marc Bergevin with another unfortunate client, Max Pacioretty, and waits until September to reevaluate the market.