Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said he tried to “do the right thing” and trade Jeff Petry as soon as possible after reacquiring the Ann Arbor native and former Michigan State defenseman on Aug. 6.
Nine days after Petry was part of a three-team trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks, Hughes dealt Petry on Tuesday to his hometown Detroit Red Wings in exchange for defenseman Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2025. The Canadiens will also retain 50 percent of Petry’s $6.25 million salary over the next two seasons.
“When I called Jeff (after the trade with the Penguins and Sharks), I said: ‘Listen, I know you didn’t go to bed expecting to hear from me this morning,'” Hughes said during a video conference on Tuesday night.
“I know they were as a family uptight. They’ve got four young boys and they were about to start school in two weeks. So I gave him my word. I said: ‘Listen, we saw an opportunity here to facilitate the trade between Pittsburgh and San Jose and to help ourselves.
“But we’re mindful that you’ve got a family and your own career and Montreal’s probably not the place you’re expecting to play.’ I promised him that we would work expeditiously to get him moved and that we wouldn’t drag this out trying to maximize every last piece of value in the trade. It probably took a little longer than we anticipated.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to do things that are against the organization’s interest. But when we can work together to do what’s best for ourselves and the players we’ll always try to do that and we hope that over time players take note and want to be a part of it.”
Hughes said the Canadiens’ pro scouts liked Lindstrom, a second-round draft pick in 2017 who had 25 points in 128 games in Detroit.
“They (pro scouts) feel like he’s a really smart, puck-moving defenceman that he still has a lot of room to grow in his game,” Hughes said.
“I think the number that they threw out was he was about 70 per cent of what they believe his potential is — and he’s young. He’s 24 years of age, he was a high draft pick.
“He’s a Swedish player and Detroit’s had a lot of success in that country over the years drafting-wise, so we’re hopeful that Gustav can come and add an element to our team and we’ll see where it takes us.”