During Saturday’s Headlines report on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston spoke of the recent Jeff Petry signing in Montreal and pointed out something very interesting. The defenseman signed a four-year extension with the Montreal Canadiens at a very unique time and Johnston wonders if what Petry did might be the start of a trend around the NHL.
Related: Jeff Petry Signs Long-Term Extension With Canadiens
What’s noteable about Petry’s deal isn’t necessarily the financials of it. Yes, he the steady and reliable blueliner did get a nice chunk of change signing for four more seasons at $6.25 million per season. It’s the timing of his deal that might be the bigger takeaway from all of this.
Petry wasn’t due for a contract extension this offseason. He still had one more season at $5.5 million with the Canadiens to play and while the team and the player were well within their rights to sign the deal at this point in time, there was no need to. In other words, neither the player nor the team were urgent to get a deal done because there was plenty of time to work out an extension throughout the offseason or during whatever might come of the 2020-21 campaign. But, both sides wanted to do a deal now.
The Canadiens wanted to lock up one of their key defenders, but more than that, Petry wanted the security of a long-term deal now. “When this opportunity came up,” Petry said, “it was something that I couldn’t pass up.”
With so much uncertainty surrounding next season, Petry’s deal is done. He’ll be set and he won’t have to worry about what comes next personally, even if next season looks stranger than this unpredictable season has. For Petry, it was worth it to secure his deal with the team. As Arpon Basu of The Athletic writes:
He has three young boys, the eldest is ready to begin school, he knows and loves Montreal, and this is not exactly a time in our collective history when uncertainty is a comfortable feeling.
Could Others Follow Petry’s Lead?
Johnston noted that what Petry did, others may be looking to do as well. There are a lot of players who have another year on their deals that might be looking to sign extensions immediately, rather than waiting. Like Petry, knowing your future is worth more than a few extra dollars in your pocket at the end of the day.
There’s been talk that Alex Ovechkin is already negotiating an extension with the Washington Capitals and no one should be shocked if the Colorado Avalanche and Gabriel Landeskog and/or Cale Makar start talking. The same goes for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in Edmonton. There are others too. For many of these players, now might be the better time than later to secure a good deal. This is especially true if teams lose even more money or a strange year might affect their personal production.
Obviously, not everyone will go this route and others teams might not have that luxury to work with the players on something of this nature. But, could more players want their agents to get in touch with their respective GMs? Could there be more of these early signings? According to Johnston, that’s the talk around the water cooler.
Next: Cale Makar Destroys Field, Wins 2020 Calder Trophy
