Habs’ Perry nominated for Masterton Trophy
MONTREAL — Corey Perry has done it all in his career.
He won a Memorial Cup with the London Knights, a gold medal at the World Junior Championship and a Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’S most valuable player and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the top goal scorer.
So why is the player who will turn 36 on Sunday playing with the Canadiens for the NHL minimum wage of $750,000 a season?
“I just want to play. I want to win,” Perry said after he was introduced as the Canadiens’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. “You get that feeling when you win it once; you want to do it again. We were so close. That one stunk, to go all that way and lose.”
That drive led the Montreal chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association to nominate Perry for the Masterton Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the game.
Perry came close to spending the season on the couch in his home in London, Ont. Dallas didn’t have room for him, and there was little interest from the free-agent market until Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin called a week before training camp opened.
“I packed my bags, jumped in my truck and drove to Montreal,” Perry said, noting that he couldn’t have made the move without the support of his wife, Blakeny, who remained in London with their three-year-old son.
After spending the first five games of the season on the taxi squad, Perry made his Canadiens debut on Jan. 23 and scored a goal in a 5-2 win over Vancouver. Going into Monday’s home game against Edmonton, Perry has appeared in 47 games and has collected nine goals and 12 assists.
Perry has played as a bottom-six forward, become a fixture on the power play and served as a mentor to the Canadiens’ younger players.
“As you get older, your role changes a bit (and) I just do what has to be done,” Perry said. “I haven’t changed my game at all. I’m the same player who broke into this league 16 years ago. Guys are bigger, faster, younger, stronger as the years have gone on.
You just roll with the punches and see where this goes.”
Perry hopes that it leads to another season.
“I believe I can continue to play, and I do want to continue,” Perry said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I can keep going.”
And Perry, who grew up in Peterborough, Ont. as a Canadiens fan, hopes he can continue playing in Montreal.
The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented fans from attending games in Montreal this year, but Perry said the Bell Centre is one of the best — and loudest — buildings in the league when there are 21,000 fans cheering, and he wants to be part of that when life returns to normal.
Perry had seven first-place votes and 23 points in voting conducted by the Montreal chapter of the PHWA. Josh Anderson had 16 points and Paul Byron had 14. The winner of the Masterton Trophy will be announced at the NHL Awards show at the end of the season.
The Canadiens’ Claude Provost was the inaugural winner of the award in 1968. Other Canadiens winners were Henri Richard (1974), Serge Savard (1979), Saku Koivu (2002) and Max Pacioretty (2012).