Montreal Canadiens: Will Corey Perry put more pressure on the penalty kill?

Corey Perry adds a lot of good things to the Montreal Canadiens, and penalty minutes may be one of them, which could put more pressure on the penalty kill.

There’s been a lot of activity from NHL teams the last two weeks with training camp approaching. The Montreal Canadiens are part of it with their latest signings of Michael Frolik and Corey Perry, but it’s the latter acquisition that has many talking.

On the one hand, we have to acknowledge the pure name recognition. Perry has 1045 NHL games played, 377 goals, 420 assists for a total of 797 points. He won a Stanley Cup early in his career in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks as a 21-year-old while also adding two gold medals in 2010 and 2014 with a World Cup of Hockey trophy in 2016. Of course, that was a Corey Perry of a different era with similar tendencies.

The goal-scoring and acceleration isn’t what it was, but something that’s always been true of Perry is his ability to find the penalty box. The Ontario native is an agitator in all areas of the ice and will do whatever it takes to get his opponents – especially goaltenders – off of their game, but that generally leads to a two-minute infraction.

His glory days of penalty minutes were a five-year stretch from 2007 to 2011 when Perry had over 100 penalty minutes. It would be understandable if these were a lot of fighting majors, but it’s mostly minors that were catching him.

• 2007-08: 108 minutes (43 minors and 4 majors)
• 2008-09: 109 minutes (45 minors and 3 majors)
• 2009-10: 111 minutes (38 minors, 3 majors, 2 misconducts)
• 2010-11: 104 minutes (37 minors, 2 majors, 2 misconducts)
• 2011-12: 127 minutes (41 minors, 3 majors, 3 misconducts)

As much as these are evidence of Perry being a multi-dimensional player, it’s also not a comforting measure. That said, Perry produces penalties as much as he takes them. As much as he’s lead to the penalty box, he does a good job in getting the opposition to take infractions against him. Here are three examples in those +100 PIM eras.

• 09-10: 40 drawn vs. 43 taken (Net: -3)
• 10-11: 40 drawn vs. 41 taken (Net: -1)
• 11-12: 48 drawn vs. 47 taken (Net: +1)

It’s remained consistent in this new stage of Perry’s career as a bottom-six forward. This past season was the biggest outlier, which begs the question, is the Montreal Canadiens penalty kill in trouble with Corey Perry in the fold?

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Perry was 20th in PIMs amongst all NHL players this season, with 70 in 57 games. He took 24 penalties – 20 minors, 2 majors and a misconduct – but only drew 18 for a net of -6. The misconduct was made a meme in the latter half of the season when Perry was ejected for elbowing Ryan Ellis 39 seconds into the 2020 Winter Classic. He was eventually suspended for 5 regular-season games for the infraction.

The Montreal Canadiens must’ve known who they were dealing with when agreeing to sign Perry. If that’s the case, I doubt they’ll tell him to change any aspect of his game when he’s played the same way for 15 years. That should put more emphasis on the team’s penalty kill.

To be fair, the Habs should already have that as one of the areas of improvement for the upcoming season. Their 19th ranked penalty kill performed at 78.7%, allowing 45 power-play goals (9th highest in the league). Special teams make a difference in a shortened season, and as solid as Carey Price and Jake Allen can be, the frequency of power-play opportunities may increase.

The Montreal Canadiens are a middling team as far as taking penalties goes being shorthanded 211 times (15th). Ben Chiarot was penalized the most with 61 minutes, and there’s a huge gap between him and the next player being Tomas Tatar, at 36.  Perry could easily lead the team in that category despite playing 10-13 minutes a night as he was the leader with the Stars.

Perry will do what he needs to do and if so, the Canadiens have to be prepared to fend off those 2-5 minute stretches. The Canadian Division is filled with power-play destroyers. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl‘s eyes open wide whenever they get into the umbrella formation. Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller lit the lamp many times on the power play, while Auston Matthews has established himself as one of the best scorers at any strength.

The Habs need to be ready for that.

This isn’t to say the Corey Perry signing was a mistake. There’s an importance in having that kind of experience and character in the dressing room. However, it would be naive to ignore the reality: Corey Perry takes a lot of penalties, and if the penalty kill isn’t solid enough to stop them, the Habs could find themselves giving up more goals than before.