At 39 years old, there was plenty of speculation that Perry would be retiring at the end of last season. Instead, the 1300+ game veteran proved he could bring enough to the lineup to get one more contract from the Oilers, and continue his career for likely his last season.
Perry has been knocking on the door of a second career Stanley Cup in recent years, but has brutally lost in 4 of the last 5 Stanley Cup Finals - creating talk of the Corey Perry curse. Obviously there's nothing cursed about Corey Perry, and he can still be a quality player for the Oilers bottom six next season.
Perry's contract will have a base salary of $1.15M and include $250K of potential bonuses. If Perry's play falls off a cliff in his age 40 season, the Oilers can fully bury the contract in the minors.
He noticeably slowed down this season, but still scored 8 goals and 13 points in 38 games in 38 games with the Oilers. In the playoffs he was in and out of the lineup, but a valuable contributor in the bottom six. Hopefully Perry can keep up to speed in his age 40 season next year, and make good on the Oilers vote of confidence to extend his career.
