DALLAS — Think about having a profession that is so robust that you just’re not even conscious that your subsequent objective additional enhances your Corridor of Fame résumé.
That is Corey Perry in the mean time — and here is why. His 5 objectives throughout the 2025 playoffs have positioned him in a tie for the second-most objectives among the many Edmonton Oilers. It additional reinforces the narrative that the Oilers may be the deepest of the 4 remaining groups within the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It does one thing else too. Though every of his 5 objectives has include its personal sense of significance, Perry’s subsequent playoff objective will likely be much more particular, as a result of he’ll be tied with the legendary Jean Béliveau for essentially the most postseason objectives by a participant of their age-39 season, in response to QuantHockey.
“I believe it is only a love for the sport. That is why I need to play the sport for so long as I can,” Perry mentioned. “As soon as this sport passes you by, it is over, it is carried out. There isn’t any coming again and I am going to transfer onto one thing else. That is why what I need to do is play hockey, have enjoyable and simply be a part of one thing.”
Postseasons create champions, challengers — and those that want they may very well be both one. They create nostalgia for many who have gained a title and are in search of one other, and craving for many who have but to raise a Stanley Cup.
This specific postseason has offered Perry with the chance to seize another earlier than he finally calls it a profession. He’s one in every of simply 30 gamers that’s a part of the Triple Gold Membership: profitable a Stanley Cup, an Olympic Gold medal and the IIHF Males’s World Championship.
Whereas that is nonetheless technically his age-39 season, he did flip 40 again on Could 16. That makes him the second-oldest participant nonetheless remaining within the playoffs, behind Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns.
Perry made his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 2005. He scored his first profession objective 5 days later towards the Oilers. He has since gone on to attain 447 extra, register greater than 900 factors and added a Hart Trophy as regular-season MVP, in a profession that’s both the identical age or older than present younger NHL stars comparable to Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.
The notion that Perry’s profession is now sufficiently old to play within the NHL provides to the dialogue about how and why he is ready to carry out at such a excessive degree at a time wherein extra groups are attempting to get youthful.
“He is been round so lengthy that he understands that you should discover a function,” Oilers defenseman Troy Stecher mentioned. “He gained a Hart Trophy when he was in Anaheim, and he was one of the best participant within the league then. Anybody coming right here understands that [Connor McDavid] and [Leon Draisaitl] are most likely going to get nearly all of power-play time and offensive attracts.
“I believe with being the participant he’s and being round for therefore lengthy, he is carried out such job of discovering a job and excelling in that function. Not simply accepting it, however thriving in it.”
OPTIONS ARE EVERYTHING within the postseason. Possessing as a lot of them as potential enhances a group’s possibilities of profitable.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch defined that the veteran winger gives the group with extra line mixtures due to his versatility. He can be utilized on the fourth line or the highest line, which is a primary instance of how the Oilers have tapped into their depth to achieve consecutive convention finals.
That is when one thing else turns into clear: Taking part in Perry alongside Draisaitl and McDavid offers the Oilers three Hart Trophy winners on a single line.
It is a distinction that no different lively lineup within the NHL can declare.
“All through the playoffs, we have moved him across the lineup with Leon and Connor or simply with Leon or with [Mattias] Janmark,” Knoblauch mentioned. “No matter place he is been in, whether or not it is the primary or fourth line, he is been capable of give us high quality minutes.”
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Corey Perry offers Oilers 2-0 lead along with his second objective
Corey Perry scores his second objective of the primary interval to provide the Oilers a 2-0 lead over the Golden Knights.
A participant does not get to be an eight-time 30-goal scorer with out expertise for ending scoring possibilities. At 30 years previous, he had 34 objectives in 82 video games within the 2015-16 season, however he scored a mixed 36 objectives within the subsequent two seasons — which signaled that he would possibly must reconfigure how he will get these objectives going ahead.
Perry began to function extra in a bottom-six function wherein he was requested to supply extra secondary and tertiary objectives than that of a major scorer. An indication that he was gaining consolation in that new function was when he reached double figures twice with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2021-22 and 2022-23).
It is why the Oilers acquired him final season as they sought so as to add extra depth of their eventual run to the Stanley Cup remaining with the concept he may return in 2024-25.
QuantHockey’s information reveals that there have been 136 gamers who’ve had an age-39 season in NHL historical past. Perry’s 19 objectives this season is similar quantity that Jaromir Jagr scored in his age-39 marketing campaign in 2011-12. Perry performed 81 video games this season, which ties him for tenth place with Brett Hull (2003-04).
Of the 27 gamers who’ve scored extra objectives of their age-39 season than Perry, 12 scored greater than 9 power-play objectives. In Perry’s case, he did nearly all of his work away from the facility play, with 13 of them coming in 5-on-5 play. Perry is tied with Patrick Marleau and Gary Roberts, as all of them had 4 objectives with the extra-skater benefit.
“He is dependable as a result of he is good. He can learn the play,” Knoblauch mentioned. “Clearly, the velocity is not there like different gamers. However he thinks at it so a lot better than others. One [thing] Corey is admittedly good at is scoring objectives. This yr being just about in a fourth-line function to attain 19 objectives. I am unsure what number of he had on the facility play within the common season, but it surely was very low. For him to try this in his function says loads.”
STARTING HIS CAREER with the Anaheim Geese gave Perry the platform to change into probably the greatest gamers of his era, win a Stanley Cup and change into somebody whom Oilers teammate Evander Kane mentioned is a future Corridor of Famer.
It additionally gave him a front-row seat to check how future Corridor of Famers comparable to Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Teemu Selanne extended their careers.
Niedermayer performed till he was 36. Pronger made it to 37, whereas Selanne turned one in every of 12 gamers in NHL historical past to play till he was 43.
“If you’re 22 years previous, you are sitting again and simply watching. You do not actually do any of it however you would possibly do a few of it,” Perry mentioned. “However while you see them do it on a regular basis and proceed to do it and while you get to a sure age, you have to put within the work. In the event you do not, these younger guys coming in are larger, sooner and stronger, and you have to sustain and do it at a excessive degree.”
Each era of gamers has its life cycle. Perry was a part of the famed 2003 NHL draft class that gave the league future stars comparable to Patrice Bergeron, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Getzlaf, Joe Pavelski, Zach Parise, Brent Seabrook, Eric Staal, Ryan Suter and Burns.
At one level, every of these aforementioned gamers had been franchise cornerstones, and plenty of gained Stanley Cups. For the reverence they earned, additionally they understood what got here with getting old in a method earlier generations did not fairly encounter in the identical method.
The group entered the NHL at a time wherein youthful gamers did not obtain essentially the most minutes, nor had been they paid essentially the most cash. It is a full distinction to the up to date panorama wherein groups place a premium on youthful gamers being trusted in key roles early, which then interprets to signing larger contracts.
A byproduct of that shift was that it heightened the expectations for gamers of a sure age to fulfill a bodily threshold by inserting a premium on physique upkeep. It is why a lot of them had been capable of play past age 35 by taking up varied roles on their respective groups — and never essentially on the highest line or pairing.
Even then, there are limits. Parise and Pavelski retired on the finish of final season not having gained a Stanley Cup. Fleury, who gained three Cups, introduced his retirement this season. Burns, Perry and Suter are nonetheless lively. So what is the secret?
“It is the off-ice work. It is dietary. It is every little thing,” Perry mentioned. “It is nearly doing these various things which you can to maintain your physique in one of the best form.”
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Corey Perry suggestions in power-play objective for the Oilers
Corey Perry will get the Oilers on the board with a power-play objective within the second interval.
Kane, who turns 34 in August, mentioned that as somebody on the again half of his profession, he is beginning to perceive that age is only a quantity. However, there are benefits to having older gamers in a dressing room due to their vary of experiences.
Over the previous two years, the Oilers have been the oldest group within the NHL. Elite Prospects lists them as having a median age of 30, whereas final season’s group averaged 29.2 years. Possessing that a lot expertise has fed right into a blueprint wherein 11 of the gamers that the Oilers wearing Sport 1 of the Western Convention finals have greater than 70 video games of playoff expertise.
4 Oilers — Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl and McDavid — have mixed to look in 342 playoff video games. Perry has 227 video games of postseason expertise.
One other element that the 6-foot-3 and 205-pound Perry gives to the Oilers is dimension. The Oilers are the fifth-tallest and fifth-heaviest group within the NHL. The group that was tallest and heaviest this season was the Vegas Golden Knights — a membership that the Oilers beat in 5 video games in an effort to advance to the Western Convention finals.
“With Pears, he is been actually good and actually good in entrance of the online,” Kane mentioned. “He is been scoring some massive, key objectives at key moments for us which is clearly enormous. He is a man that is going to be within the Corridor of Fame sometime, proper? He is been a celebrity participant within the league for a while.
“When you may have that kind of pedigree and you’ve got been within the league that lengthy, you perceive find out how to play the sport and when you may have completely different talent units, not only one, you are capable of contribute in several methods and he is in a position to try this.”