Perry has been on the losing side of five of the last six Stanley Cup Finals. Harry How / Getty Images
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The Los Angeles Kings have traded winger Corey Perry to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2028 second-round draft pick. The Kings will retain 50 percent of Perry’s remaining salary.
Perry was the No. 28 pick in the 2003 draft by the Anaheim Ducks. Perry has played 1442 games for seven different teams since 2005 and has 459 goals, 504 assists and 963 points in his career.
The 40-year-old has been on the losing side of five of the last six Stanley Cup Finals, but he did win the Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. He played for the Lightning for two seasons from 2021 to 2023. He signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Kings in the offseason that included a no-trade clause. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
Perry started strongly with Los Angeles after he recovered from knee surgery following an injury just before training camp. Perry had five goals in his first six games and seven in his first nine, and showed he still had good hands and hadn’t lost his ability to distract goalies.
But Perry then went through a 21-game goal drought and his play leveled off in general. But he can still be effective when used in the correct spot. He has the ability to play up in the lineup, though the Kings had to rely on that too often. Perry is also at the point in his career at which he will accept a fourth-line role and allow his play to determine whether he deserves more minutes, which he can handle here and there.
And that comes into play in the postseason, when he remains highly effective. Look no further than last year with Edmonton, when he scored 10 times in the Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final. With Tampa Bay, Perry will be back in the place where he thrives: the postseason.
Mar 6, 2026
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