Penguins purchase defenseman Jeff Petry from Canadiens

The 34-year-old is coming off a troublesome season with Montreal that noticed him battle as their prime defender within the absence of Shea Weber. He struggled mightily offensively to start out the yr as over the primary three months of the yr, he had simply two assists in 27 video games. Nonetheless, Petry’s efficiency improved following the teaching change that noticed Martin St. Louis take over behind the bench and he was significantly better down the stretch, selecting up 21 factors within the closing three months of the season. Total, Petry completed up the yr with six targets and 21 assists in 68 video games, his lowest level complete because the 2015-16 marketing campaign, his first full season with the Canadiens.

Across the halfway level of the yr, he additionally requested a commerce for household causes. Whereas he was broadly anticipated to maneuver on the commerce deadline and once more on the draft, it has taken some time for a transfer to materialize.

Petry has three years left on his contract with a $6.25M AAV and Montreal GM Kent Hughes said earlier this week that he wasn’t eager about retaining any wage to facilitate a commerce. Whereas the Marino transfer freed up roughly $3.5M in cap flexibility, that wasn’t sufficient to soak up Petry’s full deal which is what prompted Matheson’s inclusion within the swap. Petry had been speculated as a potential substitute for Kris Letang if the veteran was to go away in free company. As a substitute, Letang signed a six-year deal and Petry will now assist kind a top quality one-two punch on the precise aspect of their again finish with Petry’s AAV checking in simply above Letang’s to make him the highest-paid blueliner on the workforce.

Matheson was a top-four defender early in his profession with Florida however his inventory began to dip just a few years in the past, leading to him being flipped for Patric Hornqvist. The transfer labored out effectively for the 28-year-old as he had a profession yr offensively in 2021-22, selecting up 11 targets and 20 assists in 74 video games whereas logging just below 19 minutes an evening. He was additionally fairly productive for the Penguins within the playoffs, notching a aim and 5 helpers in seven video games to steer all Pittsburgh blueliners in scoring whereas averaging over 25 minutes per contest.

Matheson has 4 years remaining on his contract with a $4.875M AAV on a deal that’s considerably closely backloaded along with his payout set to leap to $6.5M per season in every of the ultimate three seasons. He instantly turns into the blueliner with the longest contract on the Canadiens whereas additionally being their highest-paid. He’ll seemingly take the place of Alexander Romanov on Montreal’s depth chart because the teenager was traded again on the draft to the Islanders for the thirteenth total decide which was then flipped to Chicago to choose up middle Kirby Dach.

As for Poehling, the 23 yr previous was a first-round decide of Montreal again in 2017 (twenty fifth total) and spent most of final season with the Canadiens, notching 9 targets and eight assists in 57 video games whereas averaging simply over 12 minutes per recreation. He’s prone to have the same position in Pittsburgh’s backside six in 2022-23. Poehling is signed for the league minimal for subsequent season and can be a restricted free agent subsequent summer time.

With the transfer, Pittsburgh now has just below $2M in cap house with RFA winger Kasperi Kapanen nonetheless to signal. That’s not sufficient for the 25-year-old so it might seem that GM Ron Hextall has one other transfer to attempt to make. In the meantime, Montreal frees up a little bit over $2M with this swap, giving them a little bit over $2.3M in cap room with Dach as their most notable RFA in want of a brand new deal.

Contract and cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Petry was heading to Pittsburgh.  Every day Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the commerce particulars.