Edmonton Oilers: Top 10 moments from 2015

Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Number Six: The Oilers Trade Jeff Petry

Jeff Petry was a guy who was on his way out and there was no doubt about it and to this day, it’s a head scratcher.

On March 2nd, 2015, The Edmonton Oilers traded Jeff Petry to the Montreal Canadiens for a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick (conditional), both in 2015.

SURE, at some point, we need to move on from it, but man, did this trade ever sting.

This trade starts off in the summer of 2014 where Craig MacTavish in his glory, decided to give Jeff Petry, a pending Unrestricted Free Agent, a one year contract, worth 3.2 million dollars, to “challenge” him.

The part with Jeff Petry is that he’s a player that the Oilers had and is currently a hole on the roster: A strong right handed shooting defence man that is solid in his own end and can move the puck.

Even worse: Petry stood out in his short time in Montreal during the playoffs, where fans on a national level were able ton see Jeff Petry as a capable defenceman, rather than the best on a bad team.

Petry was mismanaged everywhere on a personel standpoint: You had the idiotic challenge and you had then head coach Dallas Eakins scratching Petry in favour of AHL All Star, Brad Hunt.

The biggest thing about Petry: he made his partners better. Look at Ladislav Smid away from Jeff Petry: he was simply not as effective as a defenceman without Jeff Petry (although injuries derailed his career as well.)

Just look at this link of the trade from the edmontonjournal.com: just complete sadness from the Oilers fan standpoint. After all this time where there were holes in the Oilers development system regarding defenseman, especially in later rounds, Jeff Petry was one of the very few that developed. Instead of keeping him around, the Edmonton Oilers could only gain a conditional second round choice and a fifth round choice (both in 2015). It was a dreadful trade. Like David Perron, it was trading actual NHL players for picks. When you’ve been as long as the Edmonton Oilers have been, it’s beyond frustrating.

Petry would re-sign in Montreal, at 5.5 million per season for six years, including a no-trade clause. The Oilers would sign Andrej Sekera in free agency for the exact same contract, but I can’t help but wonder how effective a Sekera and Petry pairing would be this year.