London Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter finds it amusing when asked if any current player on his roster reminds him of his former Knights linemate, Corey Perry.

“No,” Hunter responds instantly. This isn`t a slight towards his team, who just clinched their second consecutive OHL championship and are headed to the Memorial Cup.

“Honestly, Perrs is in a league of his own,” says Hunter, speaking about his friend from two decades ago. “For someone as skilled as he is, he’s also cultivated that really unique kind of personality and character.”

Hunter believes his friend`s distinctive qualities have enabled him to excel in his 20th NHL season, during which Perry has played shifts on Edmonton`s top line alongside superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. As the Oilers gear up for the Western Conference Final – awaiting the winner of the Dallas vs. Winnipeg series – Perry is tied for the team lead with five goals. Only five players across the league have scored more than Perry this postseason.

Hunter and Perry first met as 16-year-old OHL rookies, and Hunter remarks, “he hasn’t changed since.” “Everything we did, he was always seeking that extra competitive edge to win – and he wasn’t afraid to cut a corner or two to gain that advantage over you. I think many skilled players lack that additional layer – that toughness, that fierce competitiveness – but for him, it just comes naturally.”

“You just don’t often see a player who has won an MVP award and a Stanley Cup, and at his age still embraces getting right in front of the net, getting knocked down, and battling – things he doesn’t strictly need to do at this stage of his career,” Hunter observes. “But he’s just incredibly competitive. He genuinely loves the game, and I think that passion is evident in how he continues to play at his age. What he`s doing is truly special.”

On Friday, two days after the Oilers eliminated the Kings in five games, Perry celebrated his 40th birthday. He is the second-oldest player participating in this postseason (Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns is slightly older) and was the fourth-oldest active player on any NHL roster this season, a list topped by goaltender Marc-André Fleury.

The seasoned winger`s career goes back far enough that in his 2005-06 rookie season with Anaheim, he played for the *Mighty* Ducks, not just the Ducks. He won the Stanley Cup the following year, earned the Hart Memorial and Rocket Richard trophies in 2010-11, reached the Western Conference Final in 2016-17, and was subsequently bought out by Anaheim at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Since then, Perry has remarkably reached the Stanley Cup Final with four different teams (Dallas, Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Edmonton) in four of the last five years, losing each time. He has been more productive this postseason compared to his performance last year, accumulating seven points in 10 games versus three points in 19 games.

Perry has told the media he hopes to continue playing until age 45, and Hunter says he wouldn`t be surprised if his friend achieves that goal. “He’s going to play until they literally take his skates away,” the coach says with a laugh. “He will keep playing until his body physically can’t anymore or until no one wants him, and I have immense respect for that.”

Hunter sees Perry every summer, as Perry also resides in London. They also reconnected in March when the Knights celebrated the 20th anniversary of their first Memorial Cup championship with the team famously known as “the team of the century.” That same year, Perry became the Knights` all-time franchise points leader with 380.

That 2005 Memorial Cup final was a showdown against the Rimouski Oceanic, featuring Sidney Crosby, who would be the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft just weeks later. “I remember Perrs saying, ‘I’m just going to shut him down – I’m going to be annoying, stick tight to him, and try to prevent him from getting any scoring chances,’” Hunter recounts. “The way he approached it at 19, he thought like a coach. There was absolutely no selfishness in his game.”

Corey Perry was named the tournament MVP.

Since then, he has captured every major title in hockey: Olympic gold, the Stanley Cup, World Championship and World Junior gold, and the World Cup. Now, Perry is just eight wins away from lifting his second Stanley Cup.