Kent Hughes is currently playing with fire on the trade market
When Kent Hughes met with the media virtually the day after the free agent market opened, the Habs general manager said his priority was to find common ground to complete a trade involving Jeff Petry.
However, he did make one important clarification in this matter: his defenseman will not be traded at a discount. The recent transactions involving Brent Burns and Max Pacioretty show that the market is not very favorable to players with big contracts.
My colleague Patrick Beausejour of Fanadiens.com reported that according to La Presse reporter Guillaume Lefrançois, Kent Hughes' asking price for Jeff Petry will not come down.
To achieve his ends, Hughes will probably have to agree to withhold part of his defenseman's salary, as the San Jose Sharks did with Burns, 33%, and also the Tampa Bay Lightning with Ryan McDonagh, who sent him to Nashville about ten days ago.
But Kent Hughes was quite clear, he has no intention of withholding any of the salary to Petry. He still has three years left on his contract with an annual salary of $6.25 million.
In this case, it could be much more difficult to trade him than expected and it could very well be that the Habs organization will find itself in a bind and that number 26 will remain with the team at the opening of training camp.
But with Kent Hughes, it's no surprise that he'll pull a rabbit out of his hat once again.
| POLL | ||
Do you still believe that Jeff Petry will be traded before the start of next season? | ||
| Yes | 317 | 75.8 % |
| No | 101 | 24.2 % |
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