Kings sign forwards Corey Perry (one-year contract, AAV: $4,000,000) & Joel Armia (two-year contract, AAV: 2,500,000)

The LA Kings have signed forwards Corey Perry (one-year contract) and Joel Armia (two-year contract). Perry’s deal carries an AAV of $4,000,000 for the 2025-26 season. The contract is a combination of base salary and bonuses, which gives the Kings some additional flexibility around the salary cap as a 35+ contract. The breakdown is $2,000,000 in salary and another $2,000,000 in bonuses. For Armia, it’s a two-year deal carrying an AAV of $2,500,000.

Imagine writing this headline on this website ten years ago. Corey Perry to the Kings felt like something that was next to impossible during his heyday with the Anaheim Ducks but as he rounds out a career that could lead him to the Hall of Fame, Perry remains in pursuit of his second Stanley Cup and has become a highly desired role around the NHL. The Kings land him from the other side of the Round 1 rivalry as they try to find a way forward in the postseason.

Armia joins the Kings from the Montreal Canadiens, where he’s played since 2018. Armia was a name that surfaced for the Kings around the trade deadline over the last couple of seasons, as the team looked to potentially upgrade in the bottom six. Ken Holland said that the Kings would be looking at revamping the way their fourth line looks in an effort to deepen the group and make the team more balanced, especially come the postseason. In adding both Perry and Armia, they’ve done exactly that. More below.

Instant Analysis
So, conference champions guaranteed?

Perry has played in the Stanley Cup Finals in five of the last six seasons. As has been well documented, he has been on the losing side in all five of those series, coming closest to winning another championship in 2024 with the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7. Perry has fallen just short twice with the Oilers and also saw his team lose in the final series with Tampa Bay, Dallas and Montreal.

While Perry is not the regular 30-goal – or more – scorer he was for the bulk of the prime of his career, he’s proven to be a highly effective role player on a variety of different teams since leaving Anaheim. Last season, Perry scored 19 goals in Edmonton and added another 10 during the postseason, giving him a total of 29 in 103 games played. During the postseaso, only three players in the NHL scored more goals than Perry – Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Leon Draisaitl. Pretty good company. Perry was an effective fourth-line player who was also capable of playing up in the lineup with elite players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He scored multiple goals in all four playoff series he played in 2025 and was a major factor on the power play. He’s simply a guy who has continued to produce late in his career in a number of different ways. Entering his age-40 season, it’s been impressive what Perry has been able to achieve.

Perry also brings a lot of the qualities that excel come the postseason. First things first, the guy has been there. No forward in NHL history has played more playoff games than Perry, with only defensemen Chris Chelios and Niklas Lidstrom playing more games in the postseason among all skaters. He’s always been an agitator – no need to tell you all that – and he’s more than willing to engage in the physical side of the game, whether that be between the whistles or after them. Perry is a great player along the boards and has terrific hands in tight spaces. When the games get tighter come the postseason, Perry is a guy who seems to excel. I think the Kings could use another player or two of that ilk. Perry helps in that area.

In terms of the contract, this is a short-term contract that doesn’t carry a ton of financial risk. I think the Kings likely see Perry starting on the fourth-line, with the entire Top-9 currently slated to return after signing Andrei Kuzmenko yesterday with only Alex Laferriere remaining as a restricted free agent. Perry should contribute on the power play as well and he can potentially move up the lineup in certain situations. The Kings got almost no contribution from the fourth line on special teams last season and that should change with the signings of Perry and Armia. Perry has obvious value on the power play while Armia was one of the most used forwards on the penalty kill last season in Montreal. Getting those contributions can help balance out minutes from a group that was very top heavy in those situations last season. All six regular penalty-kill forwards were Top-9 players and that’s something that most teams don’t do. Should help here with Perry and Armia.

I think the negatives here come down to seeing a player who is one of the league’s biggest “villains” who spent a lot of time playing that role against the Kings. As a franchise pillar in Anaheim and a role player in Edmonton, I imagine for so many Kings fans this is a player who has spent 20 years being loathed. That can be hard to overcome. The player makes the Kings better in the interim but he’s a player who plays a very specific style of hockey that rubs just about everyone the wrong way. It’s part of what’s made him such an effective player of the years, bringing with him quite a bit of hate alongside it. I don’t have a ton of insight into the type of personality Perry brings to a locker room but he’s certainly been around and he’s been through it, knowing what it takes to succeed. Assuming there aren’t any issues on that front, I can’t see it being an issue. It will, however, be weird to see him in a Kings sweater, that much I am very sure of.

Photo by Ben Ludeman/NHLI via Getty Images

Armia is a player who has a good track record of playing in a bottom-six role throughout his time in the NHL. He played for Team Finland at the 4 Nations Faceoff this past February and he brings size with some skill to a team that lacked those things in the bottom six at times last season. When you combine him with Corey Perry, that’s two players who seem to play a style of hockey that the Kings were eager to add more of after another disappointing result in the postseason.

I’d assume that Armia will partner with Perry on a new-look fourth line that should give the Kings a more reliable and trusted set of wingers to improve the depth of the group up front. The way the team deployed its forwards during the playoffs was not sustainable and they needed to find a different approach on the fourth line to deepen the group up front in those games. This signing should help with that. Both players bring size and both players are trusted and reliable veterans, guys with experience and guys who I think there should be a bit more trust in playing to make the Kings a deeper team than they were in the postseason.

Armia’s profile is a little bit of everything. Looking at his NHL Edge page, he’s not a burner of a skater but he’s around the 55th percentile with regards to top speed and speed bursts between 18 and 22 MPH. For a player who is 6-3 at 220 pounds, that’s a pretty solid combination. While he’s not a heavy goalscorer, he does have a heavy shot that, ranking in the 80th – 90th percentile in terms of most shot-specific metrics. So, big guy who skates pretty well for his size and can shoot the puck.

In looking at special teams, while I’d expect Perry to feature on the power play, I see Armia slotting in as a penalty killer. The Kings in recent seasons have not gotten a ton of value from their fourth line on special teams. That should change this season, which could hopefully spell some minutes for higher-end players to be fresher in 5-on-5 and offensive situations. Armia played 205 minutes in penalty-killing situations this season, fourth most in the NHL during the regular season among forwards. the Kings

That feels like a collection of positives for a fourth line player on a two-year contract at a pretty low cap hit. So, what’s the downside? It’s your classic “hockey stuff versus analytics” debate. Armia is, to put it in simple terms, a low maintenance player in a fourth-line role who brings a lot of the traits that coaches and general managers seem to really like. The trade off are puck possession numbers that come in below 50 percent, meaning when Armia was on the ice in Montreal last season at 5-on-5, his team surrendered more shot attempts, more shots on goal and more scoring chances than they had in their favor. Last season in Montreal, that saw Armia on the ice for 16 more goals against then he was on the ice for. In 2023-24? He was +2 at 5-on-5 from a goal differential standpoint.

For the role I think he will play with the Kings, I’ll take the trade off here. This isn’t an endgame signing but finding players to create a fourth line that would be played more in the postseason I was necessary this summer after how the playoffs unfolded. If players like Armia help in that area I’m on board with it. The Kings aren’t any better in the Top-9 after the morning of July 1 but they are a deeper team up front, no question. An upgrade further in the lineup likely comes down to a trade, which probably is not coming today. The Kings still have the flexibility to do that if a move comes around and if they do, it’ll come with a better forward supporting that player when the time comes.