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Perry Inducted Into Triple Gold Club |
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Team Canada defeated Team Finland 2-0 in Moscow on Sunday.
Connor McDavid scored a beauty of a game winner and Matt Duchene added an empty net insurance goal. Duchene also assisted on McDavid's goal
Canada has now won back to back IIHF World Championship gold medals.
In the process, Canada's captain Corey Perry achieved a historical accomplishment. Perry now joins Scott Niedermayer as only other player to win:
Stanley Cup
Memorial Cup
Olympic Gold
WHC Gold
WJC
Perry becomes the 27th member of the Triple Gold Club.
Connor McDavid became the youngest player in history to win the U18 gold, U20 gold, and World Championship gold.
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Congrats to Buffalo Sabres forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Samson Reinhart for their gold medal successes at the IIHF Worlds.
For ROR, it's his second straight gold medal. He played on the 2015 squad that won gold in Prague. O'Reilly scored 2 goals and added 6 assists for Canada at the Worlds.
I feel strongly that O'Reilly has more than earned a roster spot on Team Canada's World Cup team.
Reinhart finished the tourney with four assists. In my opinion, he has earned a roster spot on the U23 "Young Stars" squad that will compete at the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.
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Meanwhile in the United States, Perry's boss Bob Murray is game planning for the future of the Anaheim Ducks.
After Perry and the Ducks were punted from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the San Jose Sharks,
Bruce Boudreau was fired by the Ducks. Boudreau has since been hired by the Minnesota Wild.
Earlier this month, a perturbed Murray promised more changes to the Ducks. Murray said that Boudreau was not solely responsible for the four straight seasons of Game 7 heart breaks that the Ducks have suffered.
Murray doesn't give a damn about regular season successes by individual players. Murray expected more out of hi score players during the 2016 playoffs. He was left wanting so much more.
“Regular season success is OK, I’ve told you all many times, for me, making the playoffs is the most important thing and then anything can happen,” he said. “I just felt for this group going forward whatever we have it wasn’t going to work going forward.”
Murray expected so much more from Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.
“Where were they? They showed up in Game 7 but where was that passion, the controlled emotion, where the heck was that?” Murray said. “So they’re going to have to be held accountable too.”
Perry and Getzlaf and Perry are locked up until the end of the 2020-21 season at a cap hit of $8.25 and $8.65 million respectively.
Perry scored 34 goals and accumulated 62 points this season.
I've been told by a reliable source that Murray will consider trading Perry this summer to free up salary cap space. Murray is serious about changing his core after suffering four straight Game 7 punch outs from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Murray can subtract Perry and acquire a scoring winger like Kyle Okposo via unrestricted free agency. There is even chatter about Murray being interested in re-acquiring scoring winger Bobby Ryan. Rick Nash? I can't see Murray going there. Nash's cap hit is enough to scare teams off.
Here are the playoff scoring totals for Perry from the past four playoffs:
Perry was held scoreless and had 4 assists. He was -7 for the Preds series.
Last postseason, he scored 10 goals, 8 assists was +6 in 19:54 TOI.
In 2013-14, Perry scored 4 goals, added 7 assists was -2 in 19:41 TOI.
In 2012-13, he had zero goal, 2 assists was an even rating in 20:20 TOI.
Perry has a no move clause that would have to be lifted by Perry in order to trade him.
Suitors? Hell yes there will be suitors for Perry.
Count Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray at the front of that line.
Tim Murray has had his eyes glued to Corey Perry since 2002.
Murray almost singlehandedly engineered the drafting of Perry and Getzlaf to the Anaheim Ducks at the 2003 NHL Draft. It's a fascinating story.
As Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher told the Star Tribune, in 2003, Tim Murray, then the Anaheim Ducks’ chief scout had targeted Corey Perry.
“I still remember Timmy pushing Bryan and I on him,” said Fletcher, then assistant general manager to Tim Murray's uncle Bryan who as Ducks GM at the time.
“He (Tim) took Bryan and I to go see him (Perry) because the big knock on Corey was his skating. But he was so skilled and so smart and so competitive".
As we've learned about Tim Murray, once he trains his laser pointer on a player, he is committed to that player. He did the same thing with Ryan O'Reilly and Evander Kane by scouting them repeatedly until he knew every ounce of information and intel on that player. Sabres fans have seen what years of intel gathering by Murray can result in. It took Murray years to get into a position of power on an NHL team and when he finally had the financial ability and the player and prospect assets, he closed deals on two behemoth forwards in ROR and EK9. Never underestimate the power of Tim Murray. He plans his work and he works his plan.
With the 19th pick in the 2003 NHL Draft, Anaheim selected Ryan Getzlaf, the huge, skilled center from the WHL Calgary Hitman.
Then Ducks GM David McNab recounted that Tim Murray had convinced the Ducks scouting staff that in the rest of the first round of that draft that “there was one premier player left in the draft — Corey Perry,” the big, tough, skilled, fearless power winger from the OHL London Knights.
As the story goes, Tim Murray's assessment sent Bryan Murray into a frenzy as he began to call rival teams looking for a dance partner. Bryan Murray was offering two second-round picks to each team in exchange for yet another first-round pick in the 2003 NHL Draft.
It took some convincing, however, the Dallas Stars, who liked Loui Eriksson, bit on the elder Murray's offer. Voila! Anaheim took possession of the 28th overall pick in exchange for two seconds.
When most other NHL GMs were looking at pick 28 as a throwaway pick, Tim Murray convinced Fletcher, Uncle Bryan and McNab to trade two 2nd rounders for the 28th pick so that the Ducks could get Perry and Getzlaf nine picks apart in the draft.
“We wouldn’t have done it if Perry was gone,” McNab told the Star Tribune.
The rest is history.
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