(Detroit) In the middle of summer, Jeff Petry received a phone call from the Pittsburgh Penguins, who wanted to trade him. Then, he received a phone call from the Canadian, only to be told that he was going to be traded again.
This transaction with Detroit finally took place, after a few days of high tension, during which Petry did not really know where he was going to end up. But he would not have protested if he had had to return to Montreal.
“Kent (Hughes) told me he was ready to work with me to find the best possible situation for me,” explained the veteran defenseman Thursday noon in the Red Wings locker room in Detroit. If Kent hadn’t been able to trade me, I would have simply shown up at the Canadiens’ camp, but not really knowing what was going to happen. »
Because Jeff Petry doesn’t come alone; with four young boys in his family portrait, considerations of moving and new schools were already on his mind, which did not enchant him. “If I had been alone and single, it would have been different, but with the family, I didn’t want to leave and leave again,” he explains.
But the scenario of a return to Montreal never happened, as we know, and on August 15, he became, to his great happiness, a member of the Detroit Red Wings.
“Those days were stressful, from the moment of the first phone call from the Penguins, who were looking to trade me,” he admitted. Then, there was this sort of in-between place in which I found myself…
“But it was the Canadian’s goal to trade me right away. Kent (Hughes) was very transparent about this with me. But obviously many things could have happened before getting to this point. »
Petry, who grew up 25 minutes from the arena here in Detroit, wanted to come back to this city where his father played baseball with the Tigers. The father that he himself has become loves this closeness with the family. “The grandparents are 10 minutes away from us! “, he explains, smiling.
Hockey-wise? There, things are perhaps going a little less well for the 35-year-old defender, who collected 4 assists in 8 games. This is because he had to miss three games this season for health reasons, in addition to being left out twice by coach Derek Lalonde.
He doesn’t worry too much about that.
“The moment I got here, the management of the club was very clear with me about it… We have seven defenders who can play every night, so I sometimes had to pass my turn, but I was already aware of this possibility. Of course we prefer to play every night, but I have to make sure I’m that guy who brings energy to the team despite everything, instead of complaining about the situation. »
But there’s nothing like coming home, and for Jeff Petry, Detroit is home.
“It’s good to be back here, to be home, because it was an easy transition to make. I train here in the summer, so when I arrived with the team, I already knew several of the guys in this locker room. So the adjustment period was short! »
