Kings’ Corey Perry to make season debut Tuesday vs. Blues
Los Angeles Kings forward Corey Perry will finally make his 2025-26 season debut in Tuesday’s game against the St. Louis Blues, Kings editorial content manager Zach Dooley announced Tuesday morning.
Perry, 40, missed the start of the season after undergoing surgery to address a knee injury he sustained during an off-season skate in early September.
The Kings signed the veteran winger to a bonus-laden one-year contract as an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Perry is eligible to earn up to $2 million in performance bonuses in 2025-26 on top of his $1 million base salary and $1 million signing bonus.
Perry scored 19 goals and 30 points in 81 games with the Edmonton Oilers during the 2024-25 season; he added 10 goals and 14 points in 22 playoff games that spring. The Blues and Kings will hit the ice for Perry’s 2025-26 season debut at Enterprise Center in St. Louis at 7:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday.
Corey Perry will make his @LAKings debut tonight in St. Louis!
— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 21, 2025Perry is no stranger to playing hockey in California, having spent the first 14 seasons of his NHL career with the Anaheim Ducks after being selected by the club in the first round (No. 28 overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft.
During his tenure with the Ducks, Perry won the Stanley Cup in 2007; he also captured both the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s goal-scoring leader and the Hart Trophy as league MVP after scoring 50 goals in the 2010-11 season. He remains immensely popular in Anaheim, which will make it all the more strange to see him wear a Kings jersey.
Since leaving the Ducks in 2019, Perry has reached the Stanley Cup Final in five of the last six seasons, losing each time. He spent the 2019-20 season with the Dallas Stars and the following year with the Montreal Canadiens before signing a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had beaten each of his previous two teams in the last two Finals.
After reaching the Final and losing yet again in 2022, Perry and the Lightning lost in the first round of the 2023 playoffs to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who advanced to the second round for the first time in 19 years. Perry started the following season with the Chicago Blackhawks but was kicked off the team early in the year due to an off-ice controversy; he subsequently joined the Oilers, with whom he lost to the Florida Panthers in both the 2024 and 2025 Finals.
Through 1,392 career games over parts of 20 seasons with the Ducks, Stars, Canadiens, Lightning, Blackhawks, and Oilers, Perry has collected 448 goals and 935 points. The Peterborough, Ontario product has added 64 goals and 141 points in 237 career playoff contests.