The Los Angeles Kings made a number of moves on the first day of free agency but without question, the most surprising move was signing Corey Perry to a one-year deal. Not necessarily because he shouldn't help the Kings on the ice, but because of the history Perry has with the franchise.
Even after the signing, the LA Kings on Twitter acknowledged how odd it will be to see Perry in a Kings uniform next season.
welp 🤷♂️ https://t.co/5q6X5cCtS2
— LA Kings (@LAKings) July 1, 2025
Perry has played 20 seasons in the NHL and a majority of them were with a LA Kings division rival, either the Anaheim Ducks or Edmonton Oilers. In fact, the Kings are the organization that he has played the most in his career with 84 regular season games with 25 goals and 23 assists.
Bill Simmons also got in on the fun with how odd it will be to see Perry playing for the Kings and raised the idea of what could be a funny situation when Corey Perry scores his first goal for the Los Angeles Kings.
The LA Kings signing Corey Perry cannot be real. Has any fan base ever booed their own player after he scores a goal?
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) July 1, 2025
Can the LA Kings fans look past the previous history if Corey Perry gets them to a Stanley Cup?
The short answer is yes because that has been general manager Ken Holland's goal since joining the LA Kings. It has been four straight years for the Kings with a first-round exit and Perry has had a hand in two of those exits.
For Perry, he has had a great run of reaching the Stanley Cup Final, playing in five of the last six, but has come up short each year. He is hoping that the move to Los Angeles can help achieve that goal.
Hopefully, Perry can be a problem for the other teams in the league like he was for the Los Angeles Kings. He may need to dig a bit into his bag of tricks and maybe squirt water into the gloves of players like he did to Jeff Carter when he was a member of the Anaheim Ducks.