Canadiens trade Jeff Petry to the Pittsburgh Penguins

The Montreal Canadiens announced on Saturday that they've traded defenceman Jeff Petry and forward Ryan Poehling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenceman Mike Matheson and a 2023 fourth-round pick.

Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has been trying to trade Jeff Petry for a little while now, but wouldn't retain salary in order to move him. It appears that he was able to find a match with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Petry, 34, has three more years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $6.25 million per season. He had some fairly solid seasons with the Canadiens, recording four straight years of 40+ points.

Poehling, 23, was Montreal's first-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Despite appearing in 57 games this season for the Canadiens, he hasn't lived up to the hype as a first-round pick and found himself surpassed by several others on the Canadiens' depth chart. With Montreal adding Kirby Dach last week, they're fairly deep down the middle with Nick Suzuki, Dach and Jake Evans as three of the four centers on the team. Moving Poehling to the wing could have been an option, but if including him in a trade meant a team would take on Jeff Petry's full salary, then it was a good idea.

As for Mike Matheson, he's only 28 years old, a left-shot defenceman and is coming off a career year with the Pittsburgh Penguins where he had 31 points (eleven goals, 20 assists) in 74 regular season games. He added six points in seven games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With the Canadiens trading away Alexander Romanov, they needed to find another left-shot defenceman to slot into the top-four and Kent Hughes managed to do so, while also adding a draft pick for next year.

Jeff Petry will make his return to Montreal on October 17th at 7 p.m. ET.

The Canadiens have traded Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Mike Matheson and a fourth-round pick in 2023.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/71Iu11Itmv— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 16, 2022

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