Corey Perry won a Stanley Cup very early in his career, lifting the Cup with the rest of the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks in just his second year of NHL hockey. He then spent 12 more seasons in Anaheim, never returning to the championship series.
Since then, Perry has played for five different teams over the last six years. He has made it back to the Cup Final in five of those six years and lost every single time: once with the Dallas Stars (2020), Montreal Canadiens (2021), and Tampa Bay Lightning (2022), and twice in the last two years with the Edmonton Oilers (2024, 2025).
“Yeah, it’s devastating,” Perry said Thursday. “I mean, five of the last six, it doesn’t get any easier. It just doesn’t feel real. But you move on and get ready for next season. Hopefully, you have that opportunity to do it again.”
Perry, 40, played 81 games for the Oilers this past season, recording 30 points (19g, 11a). He seemed to turn back the clock in the playoffs further, finishing second on the team in postseason goals (10) to Leon Draisaitl (11).
The Ontario native is an unrestricted free agent this summer after signing a one-year, $1.15 million contract with the Oilers last July. Perry has no plans on going anywhere as long as Edmonton has a mutual interest in seeing him back.
“I would love to stay here,” Perry said. “I’ll let the higher-ups do the rest of the talking, but I thought I went out and left everything on the ice, everything I could give. We’ll see where it goes, and hopefully we’re back.”
Per PuckPedia, the Oilers should have enough space to bring Perry back on a similar deal to his last. Edmonton is set to have $12 million in cap room this summer, but they will likely use a lot of that in extension agreements with defenseman Evan Bouchard and forward Trent Frederic.
Other players set for free agency include Jeff Skinner, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, and John Klingberg.
Perry will head into the 2025-26 campaign, needing to play eight more games to hit 1,400 in his career. He is also 52 markers shy (448) of becoming the 49th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals.
