MSU's Petry Coming Back to Michigan

Jeff Petry (Michigan State) is coming home.

The Ann Arbor native, who spent last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, will join his home state Detroit Red Wings on the blueline for the 2023-24 NHL campaign, after being traded to them earlier this month for defenseman Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional 2025 fourth-round draft choice. Petry will wear No. 46 with the Red Wings, the same number his father wore as a major league pitcher with the Detroit Tigers.

Petry, 35, tallied five goals and 26 assists for 31 points in 61 games last year with Pittsburgh, which did not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2006. Prior to the 2022-23 season, he had skated the previous eight years with the Montreal Canadiens, helping the Habs to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. He began his NHL career with four-plus seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, who drafted him 45th overall in 2006 after his first season of juniors with Des Moines (USHL). In 864 NHL regular-season outings to date, he has collected 92-261—353 points and 349 penalty minutes, while adding 5-8—13 points and 18 PIM in 61 career Stanley Cup Playoff appearances.

The 6-foot-3, 209-pound Petry played three years on defense at MSU, from 2007 to 2010. He totaled 9-58—67 points and 86 PIM in 118 contests overall with the Spartans, while helping them to the 2008 NCAA tournament.

NCAA Alumni Among Early NHL Stat Leaders

Former NCAA players were among the league leaders in several statistical categories as the National Hockey League completed its first week of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign that began on Jan. 13.

Vancouver forward Brock Boeser (North Dakota) and Phil Kessel (Minnesota) were among those players tied for the overall NHL goal-scoring lead with four goals each. Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry (Michigan State) and Buffalo forward Jack Eichel (Boston University) were one point off the league pace with six points each so far this season, with Eichel leading all NHL skaters with six assists. 

Petry led all NHL blueliners in scoring, with his his six points coming on two goals and four assists. Right behind him in defensive scoring was Vancouver's Quinn Hughes (Michigan) with five assists, tops among league defensemen. 

In net, Cam Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville) of Minnesota and Casey DeSmith (New Hampshire) of Pittsburgh were tied for the league lead with two wins each. Philadelphia goaltender Brian Elliott (Wisconsin) was third in the NHL with a 1.31 goals-against average, and second with a .964 save percentage so far this season.

MSU's Petry Re-Signs with Montreal

Jeff Petry (Michigan State) will remain a Montreal Canadien for the next four seasons. According to the Canadiens web site, the former Spartan defenseman recently signed a deal worth an average annual value of $6.25 million that will extend his contract with the Habs through the 2024-25 NHL campaign.

Petry, 32, has played in 680 career NHL regular-season games with Edmonton and Montreal, and has registered 69 goals and 184 assists for 253 points to go with 269 penalty minutes. Drafted 45th overall by Edmonton in 2006, he skated with the Oilers from 2010 to 2014 before being traded to the Canadiens on March 2, 2015.

Petry, from Ann Arbor, Mich., played two years of junior "A" hockey with Des Moines (USHL), winning the league's Clark Cup championship in 2006, before suiting up for three seasons at MSU from 2007 to 2010. In 118 career NCAA outings as a Spartan, he notched 9-58—67 points to go along with 86 PIM. He was also named a Second-Team All-America selection following his third and final season in East Lansing.

The 6-foot-3 rearguard has also played in 51 career AHL regular-season contests with Springfield and Oklahoma City (now Bakersfield). He has also appeared in three World Championships with the U.S., and won a bronze medal in 2013.

MSU's Petry Scores Twice in Montreal Win

Michigan got upstaged by Michigan State on Tuesday night in Montreal.

Andrew Cogliano (Michigan) scored the game’s first goal for the Anaheim Ducks while extending his consecutive games played streak to 738 NHL games, but it was all Montreal after that. The Canadiens tallied five unanswered goals, two of them by defenseman Jeff Petry (Michigan State),  en route to a 5-0 victory at the Bell Centre.

Petry, from Ann Arbor, Mich. now has seven goals on the season, tying his NHL career high recorded in 2013-14 with the Edmonton Oilers. He collected nine goals in three NCAA seasons at MSU (2007-2010), according to hockeydb.com.

The games played streak by Toronto native Cogliano, who scored 36 goals in two years at Michigan (2005-2007), is the fifth-longest streak in NHL history. He passed current St. Louis Blues blueliner Jay Bouwmeester, who played in 737 consecutive NHL contests from 2002 to 2014 with Florida, Calgary and St. Louis.

U.S. Routed by Russia in World Championship Play

Team captain and Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader (Michigan State) scored the only goal for the United States in Monday's 6-1 loss to Russia in a preliminary round game in the 2014 IIHF World Championship at Minsk Arena in Belarus. The U.S. fell to 2-1 in the tournament, having earlier defeated host Belarus and Switzerland.

Former Spartan teammate Jeff Petry assisted on Abdelkader's goal, which came after Russia had built a 3-0 second-period lead. Florida Panthers netminder Tim Thomas (Vermont) took the loss with 10 saves on 15 shots, and was relieved just over halfway through the contest by David Leggio (Clarkson), who stopped seven of eight attempts.

The Americans return to action against Latvia on Thursday.