Kent Hughes<\/a> on Petry\u2019s return to form. \u201cIt was always more a question of his family situation. We always said, if we could trade him, we would, but it has to be a trade that makes sense for the team. We always knew he was a good player.\u201d<\/p>\nHughes stated that he remained open to the idea of bringing Petry back if the defenceman\u2019s mindset had changed since their last discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken with Jeff lately to see where he\u2019s at, but we\u2019ll have our exits meetings today and see if things have changed,\u201d said Hughes on his plan for Petry. \u201d If not, then we\u2019ll be at the same point. We\u2019ll try to trade him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Montreal Canadiens have a strong glut of defensive prospects coming up, and Petry would certainly help as a stopgap for them as they get their feet wet in the pros. With the Canadiens also being very thin on the right side of their defence, it would make sense for the Canadiens to hold onto Petry should he wish to stay. Very few right-handed defencemen can play the way Petry does, and, if he can maintain the quality of play he showed in the latter stages of the season, he\u2019d be more than worth his $6.25M Cap hit.<\/p>\n
Jeff Petry\u2019s Appreciation For The Montreal Canadiens\u00a0<\/p>\n
Petry didn\u2019t hold back in his exit interview, presenting a very candid and honest opinion of the club he chose to re-sign with twice during the prime of his career. Petry spoke about his love for the city, the great setup they had for his children and his appreciation for the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no better place to play, to win. Being so close last year, and getting a little taste of how amazing that could have been,\u201d said Petry. \u201cI truly believe this is one of the best places to play when the team is doing well. At the Bell Centre, it\u2019s second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petry took the time to explain the strain the last year took on his family on how it factored into his unhappiness at the height of Covid restrictions in Quebec from December to February.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to have them (his family) go back home was difficult. We both love this city; we\u2019ve loved it for the eight years we\u2019ve been here,\u201d said Petry on the decision to have his family return to Michigan for the rest of the season. \u201cIt was hard for my family and her family to come and help. You\u2019ve seen my kids; we need all the help we could get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petry not only seemed revitalized at the podium on Saturday, he also seemed excited about the organization\u2019s future, pointing to the young, emerging leaders on the team and presenting his own view on how far the club was from competing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of very good pieces in this organization. You see guys like Suzuki, Caufield, the Dmen we got, Guhle,\u201d said Petry as he listed off the top young pieces of the organization. \u201cIt won\u2019t take 7-8 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those certainly do not sound like the words of someone who\u2019s made up his mind yet. In fact, it seems like his end-of-season success and the club\u2019s finish have really complicated Petry\u2019s decision, one that he is not taking lightly going into the summer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t![\"avatar\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769600000_424_07ba55ead0c73509df880c421e3023e5ac7c7d9f55b4c9b9a5aeeb184bcdf689.png\")
<\/p>\n
\t\tMarc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The … More about Marc Dumont<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The door seems open for a reconciliation between the Montreal Canadiens and Jeff Petry. Due to a resurgence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,2656,5,4116,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-432395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-habs","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jeff-petry","12":"tag-montreal","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens","14":"tag-montrealcanadiens","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115972512820746537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}