Corey Perry reached a significant career milestone on Wednesday night when he became the 102nd player in NHL history to reach the 400-goal mark.
Perry’s goal came late in the second period of the Lightning’s 5-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers when he deflected a Mikhail Sergachev shot behind goalie Mike Smith to give the Lightning a 4-1 lead.
You can see the goal in the video posted above.
It has been a pretty outstanding career for Perry over his 17 years in the league. He has led the league in goals one time, won an MVP award, was a key player on the 2006-07 Stanley Cup winning Anaheim Ducks team, and helped the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup Final the past two years where each would eventually lose to the Lightning.
Now this season he is trying to win the Stanley Cup with the Lightning. If they do, he will play a pretty significant role in that as well.
The Lightning saw some pretty significant contributors leave this past offseason due to the salary cap as Tyler Johnson and their entire third line of Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde, and Barclay Goodrow were all traded, left in free agency, or were taken in the Seattle Kraken expansion draft. Obviously they needed to bring in people to replace all of that production, and Perry has proven to be an outstanding fit.
He signed a two-year, $2 million contract in free agency and is giving the Lightning production and play that far outweighs that salary cap number. HIs goal on Wednesday was his 14th of the season and puts him on a pace for nearly 25 goals this season in a bottom-six role. The Lightning could not have possibly asked for more than that.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.