Edmonton Oilers take an “L” by adding Corey Perry in the middle of a historic winning streak

Sunday morning, news broke around the Edmonton Oilers and it was eventually confirmed that the team will be signing free-agent winger Corey Perry to a contract for the remainder of the 2023–24 season. This comes just two months after he had his contract terminated by the Chicago Blackhawks less than two months into the season. Prior to his termination, he had four goals and nine points in 16 games.

Perry and the Oilers have agreed to a deal, announcement likely coming Monday if not sooner.

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) January 21, 2024

Corey Perry’s 2023–24 season

Perry’s tenure with Chicago came to a sudden and unceremonious ending at the end of November. An incident involving a team employee occurred the day before a game, and on learning of the incident, the Blackhawks pulled Perry from the lineup. Soon after, the team sent out a press release saying he would be out of the lineup while an investigation took place. Shortly after that, Chicago GM Kyle Davidson announced the termination of his contract due to unacceptable misconduct.

Perry broke his silence afterwards, saying he was going to be working with mental health and substance abuse specialists.

Just over two months since his last game, the Oilers are on track to sign the veteran winger.

Corey Perry’s history with the Oilers

For someone who has never played in an Oilers uniform, Perry has an interesting history with the Edmonton Oilers.

The almost-trade to Edmonton

All the way back in late 2003, there was a deal in place that would have made Perry an Oiler. Perry, the 28th overall pick in the 2003 draft of the Anaheim Ducks, would have been sent to Edmonton in exchange for Mike Comrie and a first-round pick. Both sides agreed to the deal, but it fell through because then-Oilers GM Kevin Lowe wanted Comrie to pay back $2.5 million, assumed to be a signing bonus he had been paid earlier in the year.

Comrie refused, understandably so, and the deal fell through.

“What do I say to Corey?”

The Oilers and Ducks were in an on-again-off-again rivalry over the next decade and a half that led to a peak in the 2017 playoffs. This was the first playoff run of the Connor McDavid era and the atmosphere around the team was electric. The Orange Crush was in peak form around Oil Country.

In the second round of the playoffs, the Oilers took on the Ducks.

Edmonton had a 2–1 series lead heading into Game Four. Two goals in the first period gave the Oilers a 2–0 lead. But early in the second period, the Ducks scored a controversial goal where Perry skated through Cam Talbot‘s blocker, impeding him from making the save.

The officials were controversially heard saying “What do I say to Corey?” as they were reviewing the play. The goal was upheld after a coach’s challenge and the Ducks eventually won 4–3 in overtime to tie the series.

Then in Game Five, the Oilers were leading 3–0 until the final minutes of the game. A late-game collapse, headlined by yet another controversial goalie interference review, led to Perry scoring the game-winning goal in double overtime to give the Ducks a 3–2 series lead and eventually a series victory.

Corey Perry as an Edmonton Oiler

So, as we can see, Perry has a history with this organization, just not necessarily a good one. The fanbase will likely take some warming up to him—that is… if they can ever warm up to him—given his history. The patron saint of the NHL has a tendency to rub opposing fanbases the wrong way with his play style. However, it has been and can be effective, he does have a Hart Trophy and Rocket Richard Trophy after all.

Why sign Perry now?

The Edmonton Oilers are in the middle of a 13-game winning streak—one of the longest in NHL history and the longest by a Canadian team ever. Why is there a sudden need to bring in a controversial figure that will rub the fanbase the wrong way? And, although it can be assumed the locker room is okay with it, someone who was just recently terminated from a different organization for unacceptable misconduct? Is that the type of presence the team wants to add at this time?

It is also an important distinction to make that while the front office and players might be okay with it, how is the rest of the organization going to feel? The team employees, support staff, rink staff, and all the others who work behind the scenes to help put the show together. It sounds like the incident in Chicago was with a team employee, someone not a part of the on-ice or player staff. How are these employees going to feel with someone being brought in with that recent history?

It speaks, yet again, to large cultural problems within hockey where players’ behaviours are overlooked with the logic being “but he’s good at hockey.” Someone who has been in the league a long time is automatically assumed to be a good veteran presence and a good person to have around the team and locker room, even if there is very recent evidence suggesting that might not be the case.

It sounds like Perry, after the incident with Chicago, took accountability for himself and started to get the help he needed to work on his mental health. This is great, as there is always room for growth and people can make amends for past poor behaviours.

But again, the timing of this move is questionable at best. The Oilers are not in a position to need to make any significant lineup changes in the middle of such an incredible win streak and are still a month and a half out from the trade deadline. And it is incredibly soon for any significant changes to be made to one’s self and life after what sounds like an extreme example of misconduct committed by Perry.

One last issue with the timing of this is that it significantly impacts the Oilers’ options at the trade deadline. Edmonton is already tight to the cap and will have to make a roster move to add Perry in, which will end up putting them right at the cap ceiling. If they have any hope of making an add at the trade deadline, possibly a third line centre or depth at right defence, it will have to be money in-money out. With cap space being at a premium around the league, it could make this type of move incredibly costly.

We would hope that the team does their due diligence on someone and tries to gauge their growth from their past and past behaviours and would not sign Perry if they didn’t feel good enough about what they hear. But the impact on the team beyond just the players and his locker room fit is in question with this signing.

Where does Perry fit into the lineup?

If the move is done, he will be an Oiler. And the team will need to find a place in the lineup for Perry.

The top two forward lines are playing extremely well at the moment and should not be tampered with. And, at this stage in Perry’s career, he would not hold up to playing that many minutes nor would he be able to keep up with the pace of play.

The past five seasons, he has averaged just over 13 minutes of ice time per game, indicating he fits in around the third line. This is approximately where the Oilers would need him.

The Oilers have most often been using Mattias Janmark – Ryan McLeod – Derek Ryan on the third line over this win streak. Putting Perry on the right wing on this line pushes Ryan down to the fourth line, which is more in line with his average time on ice and it gives him the chance to mentor Dylan Holloway as Holloway trains as a centre.

This helps the overall scoring depth as Perry has more of a scoring touch than Ryan. With McLeod finding his offensive game lately, seven goals and 12 points in his last 12 games, this could be a welcome boost to that line.

Adam Erne seems to be the odd-man out in this shuffle, as the Erne experiment did not really work out and Perry seems to be a slightly better, albeit older, version of Erne. A rotating cast of him and Sam Gagner as healthy scratches seems to be most likely depending on workload and opponent.

What do you think about the Corey Perry signing? Drop a comment down below!