The Edmonton Oilers' Ken Holland talked about what it's been like chasing after Corey Perry.
The Edmonton Oilers' Ken Holland talked about what it's been like chasing after Corey Perry.
EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers welcomed their newest addition today at practice. The team announced the signing of Corey Perry early today. It is a one-year deal with a $775,00 base salary in addition to performance bonuses.
At practice this morning Perry was rotating in on the bottom six. According to both Kris Knoblauch and Ken Holland they are aiming to insert him into the lineup for Saturday's game against the Nashville Predators. Considering that he hasn't played an NHL game in a couple months, that's probably the best course of action.
Holland outlined the timeline of events to The Hockey News (and the rest of the media), "Late Saturday afternoon I was in Calgary for the game against the Flames and we agreed to a one-year contract."
"I was hoping to keep it a secret and have an announcement today," Holland lamented about the news of Perry's deal being leaked before Monday. But with the official signing being announced today, Holland finally got his guy by inking Perry to a one-year deal.
"In 2019 when Corey was bought out by the Anaheim Ducks my first year here as a manager of the Oilers. I went after Corey hard [and] unfortunately he made the decision to go to Dallas," and now about three and half years later Holland was able to get Perry to sign a deal with the Oilers.
For that time he didn't sit idly by - he's been pursuing Perry since then.
"I've been hot after Corey for the past few years."
Holland talked about why he targeted Perry and the type of player that he is, "I think he's the type of player that every team wants on their team. He's been a player that's been on a lot of winning teams."
With the forward depth now looked after, Holland will turn to seeing what else he can do to improve the team leading into the trade deadline.
In five days will be two years since the Oilers announced the initial in-season signing of Evander Kane. They get a similar type of player in Perry - but one who has done a lot more in the NHL - even if he is closer to the end of his career than Kane is.
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