With Hoffman and Petry, Hughes did not miss the forest for the trees

August 16, 2023

On Sunday, August 6th, the Montreal Canadiens became the facilitating third party in a trade that saw defenseman Erik Karlsson shipped from the San Jose Sharks to the Pittsburgh Penguins. For the Pens to take on Karlsson’s enormous contract they needed to find a new home for blueliner Jeff Petry, and the Habs became involved to help navigate the deal.

When all was said and done, the Habs had relieved themselves of forwards Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick, without retaining any salary, and in return had received Petry at a reduced price (the Pens retained 25%), goalie Casey DeSmith, forward prospect Nathan Legare, and a second-round pick in 2025.

Then on August 15th, GM Kent Hughes dealt Petry (50% retained) to the Detroit Red Wings for young defenseman Gustav Lindstrom and a 4th round pick.

What can we read into these deals?

The market for Mike Hoffman was non-existent.

The forward group in Montreal has been crowded dating back to last off-season. Mike Hoffman has been available for months, with the Habs reportedly seeking nothing of consequence in return. It is now obvious that the only team willing to take him was doing so in order to offload a much more problematic contract.

It took considerable creativity on Hughes’ part, taking back contracts he knew he would have to flip, but that he would have a higher likelihood of being able to move. He added a second round pick and an asset for Laval, along with whatever he could fetch for Petry and DeSmith, while weaponizing cap space and freeing up roster spots.

This was brilliant business by Hughes.

Fans may have gotten greedy at this point, but Hughes could still see the forest within the trees.

Fans would have traded Hoffman for a bag of pucks but suddenly, with Petry returned in the package, fantasies evolved into first round picks. It’s funny how memories work.

It seems folks had a great recall of one night where Petry didn’t come to his goalie’s defense, but couldn’t recall that he was a player with no desire to be in Montreal, owned a 15-team no trade clause, and had seen his play decline in the past two years. They also seemed to miss that if there was a healthy market for Petry, Dubas would have already moved him.

Both Dubas and Hughes, along with every other GM in the league, knew the only reason Montreal was not on Petry’s no-trade list was because he couldn’t fathom this scenario ever unfolding. All involved knew Hughes would prefer to flip Petry, and surely every team not included in the no-trade list knew Hughes was unlikely to play hard ball.

It’s easy for fans to say hold him until the trade deadline and hope his value rises – they’re not the ones making decisions to steal time from developing defenders so they can give prime time to a player who doesn’t want to be there. Don’t we all remember how that went last time?

Hughes knew he had gotten value for a player (Hoffman) who lacked value. His goal was to open up a roster spot in the forward group and free up some cap space. He had accomplished that and more, and didn’t get distracted by a new sub-plot.

The Petry trade worked for everyone.

Yes, the Red Wings got Petry on good value. I’m not sure how he fits their rebuild, but that’s their problem. Petry also got a good deal – he’s a declining veteran with more children than the old woman who lived in a shoe and he wanted to be close to home. He can finish out his career in his home town wearing his Dad’s old number. That’s heart-warming stuff.

But let’s not pretend the Habs were playing Santa Claus here. Yes, they did Petry a solid, but it also works for them.

Lindstrom is a depth right-shot defender who may have more in him than he has shown so far. At worst, he can fill a role without forcing the kids to develop faster than is ideal, and they won’t hesitate to replace him with a kid who is ready. A fourth-round pick is also an asset. Ultimately, the Habs got some cap relief and assets for Mike Hoffman, who had no value on the market two weeks ago, but dealing Petry quickly also works for their cap management plan.

Hughes was clear. He had no interest in dragging the Petry situation out “trying to maximize every last piece of value in a trade.” He said, “I spoke with Jeff and he was thankful. That doesn’t mean we’re going to do things that are against our interests. But when we can work together to do what’s best for ourselves and the players, we’ll always try to do that. And we hope that, over time, players will take note and want to be a part of it.”

Best for ourselves and the players. Hughes got what he needed to out of the Petry deal.

Hughes will deal again before the puck drops on a new season.

It caused a little bit of a stir when Hughes acknowledged his hope was to avoid placing Carey Price on off-season LTIR unless an opportunity arose that would make it worth it, and followed that up by saying there were items he could not discuss that would make this possible. Since then fans and pundits have spun considerable potential trade webs.

It’s no secret that there are other contracts that Hughes would just as soon get rid of, and this is undoubtedly the summer of subtraction. After letting free agents – both restricted and unrestricted – walk, Hughes has shed the contracts of Joel Edmundson, Hoffman and Pitlick. It hasn’t been flashy, but some important rebuild work has been accomplished this summer.

The more likely outcome is that Hughes will deal one of his goalies to become cap compliant. But we can’t sleep on Kent Hughes. The level of creativity we have seen thus far may reveal itself again before training camp opens.