![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/perry-e1772818250121.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Lightning made one of the Friday’s NHL trades, reuniting with a former grinder, paying an eye-popping price.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> jumped into Friday\u2019s NHL trades. The Bolts brought back Corey Perry in a deal with the LA Kings<\/a> leading up to the NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n Insider Elliotte Friedman initially broke the news on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n Corey Perry to Tampa Bay from LA<\/p>\n Perry played with the Tampa Bay Lightning for two seasons, playing in the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2022. The 41-year-old will be a depth piece for Tampa Bay. The club is looking to round out its bottom-six depth through NHL trades.<\/p>\n At this point, Perry will likely reprise his fourth-line role for Jon Cooper. That\u2019s not a bad move, considering the Lightning will have to plow through tough Eastern Conference clubs like the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n But what made this trade eye-popping is the return. The LA Kings got a second-round pick from the Lightning. It\u2019s an insane price to pay, but that\u2019s been the trend of the latest NHL trades. Contenders have been paying exorbitant prices for depth pieces.<\/p>\n While Perry is about as good as anyone in the league, it certainly seems surprising that the Lightning would pay such a high price. The club has been savvy in making shrewd deals over the years.<\/p>\n It seems the Lightning have gotten somewhat desperate<\/a> at being unable to make any NHL trades thus far.<\/p>\n Lightning Get Familiar Face in Perry<\/p>\n Indeed, the Lightning get a familiar face in Perry. He played 82 games in 2021-22<\/a>, scoring 19 goals and 40 points. He followed that up the next season, playing 81 games, scoring 12 goals and 25 points.<\/p>\n He left Tampa Bay as a free agent, spending time with the Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers before landing in Los Angeles this past summer.<\/p>\n Before being a part of Friday\u2019s NHL trades, Perry had scored 11 goals and 28 points in 50 games for the Kings.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the Lightning got a known commodity in Perry. He\u2019s a player that Cooper trusts, potentially giving him more options down the stretch and in the playoffs.<\/p>\n Lightning Still Have Time to Make More NHL Trades<\/p>\n The Lightning still have runway to make more NHL trades before the clock strikes 3 pm on Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n The club has been looking to upgrade at various positions, while also clearing up some cap space. That situation will likely put the Lightning in a position to see what other pieces may be available.<\/p>\n However, as the Perry deal suggested, the prices for depth pieces are through the roof. The Lightning already sent a second-round pick, considering they don\u2019t have that much capital to play with anyway.<\/p>\n The Lightning don\u2019t have a first-round pick till 2028, and while they have picks in other rounds, the club will be hard-pressed to make other deals work.<\/p>\n If the Perry trade is the last of NHL trades by the Lightning at this year\u2019s deadline, the club\u2019s fans could feel disappointed. The team has been playing well, but there\u2019s always the need for depth in the postseason.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why fans shouldn\u2019t count the Bolts out. There\u2019s still time to make something happen. As such, Friday evening could get very interesting as fans await news in the final minutes of the deadline.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tNestor Quixtan<\/a> Seasoned NHL analyst and baseball writer focused on covering clubs across each league with news, analysis, and insights. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Nestor’s singular experiences and background have enabled him to bring a different take on the sports world as a whole. Nestor’s fondness for baseball and hockey set the tone for his love and passion for writing about sports. More about Nestor Quixtan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lightning\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning made one of the Friday’s NHL trades, reuniting with a former grinder, paying an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-181030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}