Frank Seravalli reveals Jeff Petry's Value on the market
It was reported earlier this week that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry has demanded a trade. The veteran blue liner is in the midst of his worst season of his career. It's been a tough season for Petry and the Habs team as a whole.
Jeff Petry has only one goal and 5 assists this season. After last season scoring 12 goals and 30 assists in just 55 games. It's been rumored that Jeff Petry and Habs head coach Dominique Ducharme never seen eye to eye on things ever since Ducharme took over for Claude Julien.
Jeff Petry still had three years left on his current contract that pays Petry $6.25 million dollars annually, not a good fit for the Canadiens who are heading into a much needed rebuild.
"I would say we're viewing it and we're open to everything," new GM Kent Hughes said when asked about trading Petry earlier this week. "We don't feel this immediate need to get everything done at the trade deadline," he added.
When discussing Petry's trade value on Tuesday, hockey insider Frank Seravalli revealed that while many expected that the Canadiens defenseman wouldn't be easy to move, it sounds like there are numerous teams very interested. This is how Seravalli explained it all on The Daily Face-Off Ice Breakers :
"I think the market for Jeff Petry is a little better than people might realize. They look at the term remaining three years at $6.25 million. Just talking to some in the scouting community that have watched Jeff Petry this closely this season. Obviously, it's been a disaster in terms of production. But there's certainly some personal off-ice issues going on that their new GM Kent Hughes alluded to. His family moved back to the U.S. because of the coronavirus restrictions."
"That certainly can impact a player. This is a guy that had 170 points over the last four seasons. In talking to some of the scouts, they've said that Jeff Petry just didn't wake up this season and all of a sudden forgot how to play hockey. I think there's some hope that Jeff Petry can rebound. They're thinking that probably a fair market value, in terms of what that contract might look like is a right shot moving forward, given the productivity in years past, is somewhere closer to three years $5 million," he added.
"There may need to be some money that the Montreal Canadiens eat or another contract that goes back their way that might alleviate some of that."
"I just want to read you a quick message from a director of pro scouting about Jeff Petry this season: still effective at driving play, can still skate, competes well, relatively durable, offense can be dependent on teammates. They haven't scored much this season, but all signs point to the same guy not scoring in the traditional sense, but still very much positively contributing to this team. It's something we'll have to wait and see."
When you look at the facts Jeff Petry is nearly 35 years old and has been absolutely terrible this season and he's got three more years at a big cap hit left. Jeff was expected to be a leader on the Canadiens this season after Captain Shea Weber reported he wasn't going to play this season. It seems the pressure was too much.
Credit : Hockeyfeed
