Per a report, the Habs may flip Jeff Petry; coincidentally, he has the exact same cap hit as Matt Murray

With Erik Karlsson having been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier today, in order to get the trade done, the Penguins and Sharks needed to involve a third team to make the money work. Enter the Montreal Canadiens, who acquired several assets in the deal, including a familiar face in former Canadiens blueliner Jeff Petry.

The Pens will be retaining 25% of Petry's salary for the next two seasons, and the Canadiens also added goaltender Casey DeSmith, forward prospect Nathan Legare and a 2025 second-round pick, while Kent Hughes dispatched of Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick in the deal as well.

Petry spent parts of eight seasons with the Canadiens, and while the deal has made a lot of Canadiens fans happy, they should pump the breaks a bit when it comes to their excitement. Per Sportsnet's Eric Engels, there's a chance that the Canadiens may flip Jeff Petry to another team before the start of the 2023-24.

The 35-year-old appeared in 508 games for the Habs between the 2014-15 and 2021-22 seasons, registering 248 points (70 goals, 178 assists), 186 penalty minutes and was a minus-56 over that span. He appeared in just 61 games for the Pens last season, amassing 31 points, and was a +2.


If the Canadiens are willing to retain additional salary on Petry, he could be a very solid option for the Leafs, if they're looking to shore up their blueline and add a big, physical defenseman on the right side.

Petry is 35 years of age, so that's a consideration for sure. He's got a lot of hard miles on his body and hasn't played a full 82-game season since 2018-19. However, if he's available, he's a 6'3, 210-pound defenseman who threw 190 hits last year and blocked 111 shots, in addition to all of the other things he does in all 3 zones. He has also averaged between 22 and 24 minutes per game over most of his career, owning a 22:14 ATOI over his career, so he can still play some significant minutes.

It's too soon to tell what the Leafs are thinking in all of this, and who even knows whether or not Petry is actually available, as Engels suggests. I can certainly see a potential fit there, but the Leafs would likely have to move some money to make that happen and the Habs would almost certainly have to retain a good chunk of his remaining salary.

Something worth noting here; Petry's remaining salary after Pittsburgh's 25% retention is $4.6875M - the exact number of Matt Murray's cap hit in Toronto. We know that Murray is expected to be on LTIR for the season, and the Leafs would still need to free up cap space to make it all happen, but that's a funny coincidence, don't you think?