The Florida Panthers have signed veteran defenseman Jeff Petry to a one-year contract, an NHL source told ESPN, bolstering the blue line of the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Petry signed a one-year deal worth $775,000 that has performance bonuses.
Petry, 37, played 44 games for the Detroit Red Wings last season with 1 goal and 7 assists, averaging 18:54 per game in ice time. Petry is entering his 16th NHL season, having previously played with Edmonton, Montreal and Pittsburgh before he ended up in Detroit in 2023.
Petry has 96 goals and 289 assists in 981 career games. He has played 48 playoff games in his career, all of them with the Canadiens. Petry has never won the Stanley Cup.
The signing continues a trend for GM Bill Zito -- and hopefully one for Petry as well. Zito signed Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the 2023-24 season, and he turned his role on their Stanley Cup championship team into a four-year free agent deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Zito replaced him with Nate Schmidt last offseason; Schmidt played well in the Panthers' run to a second straight Stanley Cup this season and signed a three-year free agent contract with the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday.
Now, Petry replaces Schmidt on the team's third pairing with veteran Dmitry Kulikov.
