Marc Bergevin stayed true to his priority when he gave his final press conference of the season after the elimination oh his team to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bergevin signed highly coveted defenceman Jeff Petry for six years worth 33 million dollars. It represents a cap hit of approximately 5.5 a year. Petry was acquired at the trade deadline from the Edmonton Oilers for a second round pick in 2015 and a conditional fifth round pick for next year. Petry a Ann Arbor, Michigan native truly enjoyed his time with the Canadiens and clearly stated after the elimination that he would like to come back.
There wasn’t that much top four defenceman available on the free agency market this summer and Petry is a good signing for the Habs. With Montreal, Petry played in 19 games after the trade deadline and scored three goals and assisted on four other for seven points. He was a minus -3, but he will have the chance to fully exercise his style and bring more stability into his play under Michel Therrien’s system. In the playoff, Petry brought some offense with 3 points in 12 games. Petry made 3.075 million dollars last season. In Montreal, Petry should move into a top-four role and it will allow the Habs to limit the exposure of young defencemen like Pateryn, Beaulieu and Tinordi should he make the team this year. In addition, resigning Petry will allow Markov to take some ice-time off his score sheet. In a phone interview, general manager Marc Bergevin made this statement with regards to his signing yesterday: “To re-sign (Petry) to a new contract was one of our main off-season priorities. Jeff showed a tremendous will to commit to the Canadiens and stay in Montreal,” said Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin in a statement. “He is a solid defenseman with speed and size who acquired valuable playoff experience this year. Jeff is a very good fit within our group of defensemen and his presence gives us a lot of depth at this position.”
