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For The Edmonton Oilers, Corey Perry’s Not Getting Older, He’s Getting Better

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Corey Perry (Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images)

When Corey Perry advanced the puck to Connor McDavid to set up Leon Draisaitl’s overtime winner in Vegas on Thursday, that marked the first time in NHL history that three Hart Trophy winners had ever combined for an overtime goal — in the regular season or the playoffs.

In less than a week, on May 16, Perry turns 40. For the last few days, he has had arguably the best job in hockey — riding shotgun on a line with the two Oilers superstars. 

Saturday night, Perry opened the scoring with a first-period goal in Edmonton’s first loss in their last seven playoff games — cruising down Main St. as the finisher on another tic-tac-toe play with McDavid and Draisaitl.

Four minutes later, parked in his office at the top of the crease on the power play, he tipped an Evan Bouchard shot past Adin Hill for his second of the night and fifth of the playoffs.

If Mikko Rantanen is hell-bent on showing the Colorado Avalanche why they shouldn’t have traded him in January, Perry has been sending a similar message to the Anaheim Ducks for nearly six years since they decided to buy him out.

During Perry’s 14 seasons in Anaheim, the Ducks made the playoffs 11 times and won the Stanley Cup in 2007. But when they got swept in the first round in 2018, then missed entirely one year later, GM Bob Murray decided that some of his veteran core was reaching its expiry date. 

That turned out to be Ryan Kesler’s last season, at age 34, as he couldn’t overcome his hip issues. Perry was the same age and had managed just 10 points in 31 games that year after returning from knee surgery. 

With two years remaining on a contract that carried a cap hit of $8.625 million, Perry was bought out of that deal by the Ducks on June 19, 2019. 

He wasn’t out of work for long. On July 1, he inked a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars and joined fellow Pacific Division castoff Joe Pavelski, who walked in free agency from the San Jose Sharks.

Neither the Ducks nor the Sharks have appeared in a playoff game since. 

But Pavelski appeared in 67 post-season contests over four years with the Stars before hanging up his skates at the end of last year. And Perry, the mercenary, reached the Stanley Cup Final in four of his next five seasons — with the Stars, the Montreal Canadiens, the Tampa Bay Lightning and now the Oilers. 

Over 14 years, he played 118 playoff games with the Ducks. But in just six seasons since he left, he’s now up to 106 games with his late-career teams, for 224 in all. He could eclipse his Ducks total with 13 more games played this year, but yet another trip to the final would be needed.

In these 2025 playoffs, Perry has already passed Mike Keane, Bryan Trottier and Kris Draper to get into the top 10 all-time in playoff game appearances. Ten more games would get him to a tie with Claude Lemieux for fourth place all-time. If he plays another 13, he’d also pass Mark Messier to move into the No. 3 spot — behind only Chris Chelios (266 games) and Nicklas Lidstrom (263 games).

At this stage of his career, Perry is using his smarts to make up for anything that his body might not be able to deliver. During the regular season, he put up 19 goals thanks to a career-best shooting percentage of 19 percent. And don’t talk to him about puck luck and regression: with five goals on 14 shots over nine games, he’s shooting nearly 36 percent in the playoffs.

As Draisaitl said recently, “I honestly think he could play until he’s 50, just because of his brain. We’ll see if the boots keep up there, but, uh, he’s just a gamer.”

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