Jeff Petry was in his basement playing with two of his four sons on Saturday afternoon when unbeknownst to him, his phone was ringing in the other room.
When he took a break from spending time with his sons, he looked at his phone and saw he had a missed call from Kent Hughes, general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.
"I was like, OK, something's up," Petry recalled in a virtual media availability on Sunday.
He was about to return Hughes' call when his phone rang again. This time, it was his agent, Wade Arnott. Arnott told Petry that he and forward Ryan Poehling had been traded to the Penguins in exchange for Mike Matheson and a fourth-round pick.
"He told me that (the trade) was done, and that it just hadn't been announced yet," Petry said. "So I went up and told my wife and the kids, and everybody was extremely happy to be joining the Penguins."
It was hardly a surprise for the 34-year-old blueliner.
Petry had asked for a trade earlier in the season, citing the desire to be closer to his family. He is a native of Ann Arbor, Mich., and his pregnant wife Julie and their three sons Boyd, Barrett and Bowen (fourth son Blake was born on Monday) remained in Michigan during the season instead of making the move to Montreal.
Petry sounded thrilled to be moving to a city only a four-hour drive away from his family.
"Being able to just have my wife hop in the car on a Friday night and be home at a reasonable hour, that's nice — the ability to go back and forth," Petry said. "The past couple of years with COVID hasn't been easy on anybody, living in Canada far away from my family. ... It's nice now that that's all in the past and that we're closer to home. We can all be together again."
Petry had known Pittsburgh was one of the teams interested in acquiring him. As Dejan Kovacevic previously reported, the Penguins had been trying to acquire Petry since at least the weekend of the draft earlier this month in Montreal.
Pittsburgh was an appealing landing spot for Petry, and not just because of its proximity to his home in Michigan.
"When my agent mentioned it to me, my eyes kind of got big," he said. "You look at what they've done in the past and the roster that they have. Just with talking with some people yesterday, it's a great organization, a great, great team and their wont to win is very apparent. That's the most exciting thing for me, to be on a team that's ready and eager to win."
Petry said he had a number of people from the organization reach out to him since the trade was finalized. Among the first, as always, was Sidney Crosby. Kris Letang was among the other players who reached out. He heard from a number of his own friends, congratulating him for joining forces with some of those core players and no longer being the opposition.
"The common one was, 'You're playing with those guys, you don't have to defend them,'" Petry said. "And that's exciting, because we all know the caliber of players that they are. It's exciting to be able to play with them and not have to defend them."
Petry also had a "good chat" with assistant coach Todd Reirden, who primarily deals with the defense. He said that he and Reirden are going to have more conversations in two weeks or so, to get into the finer details involving the Penguins' system and how they want to play.
Petry is an offensive-minded defenseman. While his production (and overall play) dipped last season with six goals and 21 assists in 68 games, the previous four he had 40-plus point seasons. As a puck-moving defenseman who likes to join the rush and move up in the play, he prefers to be paired with a more defensive defenseman to provide balance. Partners he found the most success with in Montreal were Joel Edmundson, Jordie Benn and Alexei Emelin.
"Those are guys that can bring some offense but are very strong on the defensive side of the puck," he said.
With nine NHL-caliber defensemen under contract for next season, there's no telling yet where Petry will fit in the defense pairings, or who his partner may be. The Penguins have another three months to find some clarity before the puck drops for the start of the season.
MORE FROM THE AVAILABILITIES:
• Asked on Saturday if a trade involving a defenseman is still to come, Ron Hextall said that it isn't necessarily the case, and that the Penguins could go into training camp with all nine defensemen. The Penguins have five right-handed defensemen and four left-handed. If they are to make another trade, they have some flexibility as to which defensemen can be moved. Of the carryovers from last season, only Mark Friedman -- a natural righty -- has extensive experience and a good comfort level with playing both sides of a defense pairing. Free agent signing Jan Rutta is another natural righty, but has experience playing on the left side as well.
Defenseman Ty Smith, acquired from New Jersey in the John Marino trade, is a natural lefty, and has primarily played on the left side in his first two seasons with the Devils. I asked him Sunday if he had any experience or a comfort level with playing on the right side, and he does.
"I played (on the right) my whole junior career, when I was 16 until I was 19," Smith said. "I played the right side probably, like, 95 percent of that. But so far, my first years in pro, I've been on the left side for the most part. I think a couple of games here and there (on the right), but primarily on the left side. But I'm comfortable with either side, wherever the coaching staff sees I fit the best."
• Smith, on how he'd describe his own style of play: "I'm a guy who likes to skate. I kind of rely on that, hockey sense, my ability to make plays and the first pass. So I think in Pittsburgh they like that, they like skill and possession. They're a skating team. So I think that's something that goes with the way I play."
• Smith was asked as someone his age (22), if he grew up in Canada idolizing Crosby.
"I mean, yeah, obviously," he said with a smile. "I think if you didn't, there's something wrong with you if you're a kid my age. He's the best there is."
• The Penguins' four centers seem to be pretty set heading into the season, with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter and Teddy Blueger. Poehling, though, is a natural center and primarily filled a bottom-six center position in Montreal. He told me that he still considers himself a centerman, but has played the wing enough throughout his career that he's comfortable shifting there if needed, and has an awareness of what it takes to adjust to the position.
"In World Juniors a couple of times, I ended up playing center, and then a little bit at a wing, and then (in college) at St. Cloud I played a few games at wing as well," he said. "It's a little bit of an adjustment, but nothing too crazy. I think the biggest thing is just kind of learning what to do in the defensive zone. Offensively, I think you just do what you can. I mean, there's not many positions when you're just moving around with the puck offensively. It's something that definitely is an option for myself. As you get more experienced at wing, then it kind of helps you out and gives the team a chance to put you in in certain spots."
• Poehling is excited to have Petry joining him, and called Petry one of his "close friends" from the Canadiens.
"I mean, we were a couple of the only American guys on Montreal, so it was easy hanging out with him," Poehling said. "And I think his family did a great job. I mean, as a young guy, bringing me in, I would go over there for dinners, hanging out with him, his kids, his family. So when we found out I FaceTimed him and his whole family answered, they had big smiles on their faces. So I'm glad that he's coming there with me, and I'm going there with him because he's a great person, and he's a great player too. So I'm fired up for that."
