With the Red Wings, Jeff and Dan Petry catch a dream

Dan Petry was keeping a secret.

Nothing had been finalized, but when the beloved pitcher from the 1984 Tigers went to work for the local Bally Sports Detroit broadcasts in early August, he knew his son could soon be at the center of a headline-making trade for another local team.

Jeff Petry had just been dealt back to Montreal, where he spent the majority of his NHL career, as one of the moving parts in the blockbuster Erik Karlsson trade to Pittsburgh. But the rebuilding Canadiens had been up-front with him: They were going to try to move him somewhere else. And they had done him the courtesy of asking which destinations he might want them to explore. Detroit, where Jeff had grown up and where his father had made his name, was at the top of his list.

Jeff, naturally, told his father, but the situation was still fluid. It needed to be kept quiet. And that put Dan in secret-keeping mode.

Going into work, he would sit next to the network’s studio anchor, John Keating, who also anchors Red Wings broadcasts, and communicate with reporter Trevor Thompson, who covers both teams. He would work with producer Mary Beam, who is married to the Red Wings director of public relations.

“As much as I would have liked to have said something to them like, ‘Hey, be on the lookout, this is in the works’ and everything,” Dan Petry said, “I couldn’t say anything.”

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long. Nine days after Petry was dealt back to Montreal on Aug. 6, he got the call he and his family had been waiting for: The Canadiens were sending him home to Detroit in exchange for defenseman Gustav Lindström and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2025.

Jeff Petry had allowed himself to think about this idea over the course of his career. He had grown up watching the Red Wings, with a Red Wings-themed bedroom, playing out in his mind the idea of one day wearing their jersey. Then he reached the NHL, and the possibility became even more real.

“You keep thinking in your head, ‘OK, when is that opportunity going to come? Can it come?’” he said. “And for me, I always thought about, OK, wanting to play one year here maybe at the end of my career, or whenever the opportunity came.”

His dad, however, was less convinced that day would come. He had heard the rumors in Jeff’s draft year that the hometown team might be interested, but he ended up being drafted to Edmonton. And he had heard similar rumors one year in Montreal, as Jeff neared free agency. But especially considering the league’s tampering rules, he would have had to go to July 1 unsigned in order to find out for sure.

It would have been a gamble, especially with an offer on the table from the Canadiens.

“He ended up signing with Montreal, and then it was just like, yeah, I don’t quite see this happening ever,” Dan said. “But here we are.”

It’s a full-circle…