HabsWorld.net --
After spending parts of eight seasons in his first stint with Montreal, Jeff Petry’s second go-round with the team barely lasted eight days as on Tuesday, the Canadiens traded the blueliner to Detroit for defenceman Gustav Lindstrom and a 2025 fourth-round pick. The selection will be the later of the two Detroit currently holds (their own and Boston’s).
Additionally, the Habs are retaining 50% of Petry’s salary and cap hit as part of the trade. That creates a dead cap charge of $2,343,750 for each of the next two seasons.
Montreal re-acquired Petry earlier this month as part of the three-team trade that sent Erik Karlsson to San Jose. Given that he was barely a year removed from his original trade request, there was an expectation that GM Kent Hughes would try to flip him relatively quickly. Hughes acknowledged to reporters today that his priority was to accommodate Petry with this move.
As for Lindstrom, the 24-year-old was a second-round pick by Detroit back in 2017 (38th overall). He has spent the last two seasons exclusively at the NHL but was scratched at times in 2021-22 and missed a good chunk of last season due to injury. In 2022-23, Lindstrom played in 36 games, collecting eight points while averaging just 14:10 per night of playing time.
Lindstrom recently signed a one-year, $950,000 deal and will be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights next summer. At first glance, he could find himself battling for the sixth or seventh spot on the depth chart with the Habs and could put Chris Wideman’s place on the roster in jeopardy.
The swap gives Montreal nearly $1.4 million in cap savings for the upcoming season although they still sit $3.77 million above the cap, per CapFriendly. Notably, Hughes indicated his desire is to not put Carey Price on offseason LTIR which means that they will need to submit a cap-compliant roster (which would include Price) before the regular season starts in October. There are some ways to get to that point but it wouldn’t be shocking to see them try to open up some more flexibility, perhaps by dealing Casey DeSmith, another piece they acquired in the Karlsson swap.
Lindstrom’s Stats:
