Montreal Canadiens Rumour: Corey Perry On Their Radar

The Montreal Canadiens have a ton of cap space available to use this summer. One player they are rumoured to be interested in is former Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry.

The Montreal Canadiens are rumoured to be keeping a close eye on Corey Perry during the free agent negotiating period. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet mentioned in his 31 Thoughts article that Montreal and Pittsburgh are on Perry’s radar right now.

Perry was bought out of his eight year, $8.625 annual cap hit last week. He clearly struggled with injury and performance this season. He finished the year with just 31 games played for the Anaheim Ducks and only ten points.

That is a far cry from the heights Perry once reached as an NHL player.

Perry was a first round draft pick by the then named Mighty Ducks in 2003 which has become known as one of the best draft classes ever. He absolutely dominated the Ontario Hockey League for two years after his draft and was a huge part of the 2005 World Junior Canadian team that won a gold medal and is known as the best team to ever enter the tournament.

It didn’t take long for the Ontario native to become known as one of the best power forwards in the world. He reached the 30 goal plateau in six different seasons, maxing out at 50 in 2010-11. Perry won a Hart Trophy that season for MVP of the league.

The problem is, none of these events happened yesterday. Sure, if Perry was a free agent in 2012 teams should have paid him enormous amounts of money. But he is a free agent in 2019 and his recent performance tanked enough that the Ducks bought him out.

Perry’s 2018-19 was abysmal. He clearly was no longer worth his annual stipend of $8.625 million. However, it was his first real bad season and he can blame his injury for that. Perry had a serious knee injury at the end of training camp which required surgery. He missed close to five months recovering from his surgery before setting foot back on the ice with the Ducks.

It’s difficult for anyone to come back from a torn meniscus and injured knee ligaments. Perry was 33 years old at the time, and wasn’t known as the swiftest skater to begin with.

Having a full training camp heading into next season, you could see Perry bounce back and officially write-off the 2018-19 season. In 2017-18, Perry wasn’t a Hart candidate anymore, but he scored 17 goals and 49 points in 71 games. That’s a 20 goal and 57 point pace over a full season.

That’s decent production, and the Canadiens could use a player with a right handed shot that can put the puck in the net for their power play. Some people will point to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield as better solutions with the man advantage, but signing Perry would allow those players to develop properly and not be rushed into roles they aren’t ready for yet.

Perry would be the perfect stopgap for Suzuki and Caufield. Suzuki had a great season in the OHL but will be 20 years old next season and it could be best for his long term development for him to play a full season at center with the Laval Rocket.

Caufield was a steal at 15th overall in the draft, but he is set to go to Wisconsin and play NCAA Hockey next season. He’s a slight forward so playing a year or two at Wisconsin would allow him time to add some muscle and get ready for the grind of a lengthy NHL season.

Signing Perry to anything more than a two year deal would be far too risky. However, a one or even two year contract with a cap hit around $3 million would be very manageable for the Montreal Canadiens.

If he plays with Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin, he could very well bounce back to his 2017-18 form when he was a 20 goal and 55 point scorer. He’s a powerful, physical winger, a leader and a Stanley Cup champion in 2007.

His ability to score, history as a winner, leadership skills and veteran savvy would be a welcome addition to the 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens. Perry would be a perfect mentor for the long list of prospects about to turn pro with the Habs and should be brought in on a short term deal.