Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers are seeking redemption in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, vying to avenge their loss in this stage during the 2023-24 NHL season. For Corey Perry, however, revenge has a much more profound meaning.
Perry is the fourth-oldest active player in the NHL, and the oldest one still in action in the 2024-25 season. He is now determined to stop the bleeding on his losing streak in the Stanley Cup Final. Perry will make his fifth appearance in the last six years in the decisive stage, having lost in all four previous times.
Perry won the Stanley Cup during his first full, 82-game season in the league in 2006 and 2007, when he helped the Anaheim Ducks hoist Lord Stanley. However, he has since made the final four times: in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024, losing each and every time. This year’s will be his fifth, as McDavid and the Oilers hope the hex will finally be broken.
Because of his age, fans and media often wonder whether Perry is hoping to end his career on a high note—and if he might walk away after capturing a second Stanley Cup. Yet that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least for now, as Perry has revealed his plans for the 2025–26 NHL season.
“Corey Perry says he’s never seriously thought about retiring and he won’t be doing that this summer. He intends to play a 21st NHL season in 2025-26,” insider Chris Johnston stated on his X, formerly Twitter, account.
McDavid’s obsession
McDavid was named the best player in last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy for his out-of-this-world production throughout the NHL postseason, yet it seemed all in vain as he failed to hoist the Stanley Cup. That feeling still doesn’t feel right with the former first overall selection in the 2015 NHL entry Draft, and he is determined to make things right this time around.
“I just want to win the Stanley Cup,” McDavid told GM Stan Bowman when the two first met after last year’s defeat. “It was the only thing we talked about,” Bowman recalls. “This is his singular focus. Right now he’s on a mission.”
Ready for the test
Edmonton will enjoy home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Final—something they haven’t had all postseason, having started every series on the road until now. Still, that’s not weighing heavily on the Oilers’ minds; all they care about is finally putting their ghosts from the past to rest.
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“We have a different mood. Last year, we didn’t know what to expect,” head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters during his media availability. “The biggest change is we’ve been here before. We know what to expect. We’ve seen this team before. We’re [now] accustomed to it.”