As you might have heard, the Blues defeated the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday night. For the first time in the Blues’ 52 years of existence, they are bringing the Stanley Cup back to St. Louis.
There will be a number of big names etched onto the side of the most famous trophy in sports — Ryan O’Reilly, who was awarded the Conn Smythe, Alex Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko and Calder finalist Jordan Binnington, to name a few. But former Golden Knights forward David Perron, who helped Vegas reach last year’s Stanley Cup Final, will also be remembered as a key part of this year’s Blues team.
Perron only spent one season playing for the Golden Knights, but it wound up being the best statistical season of his career — 16 goals and 50 assists in 70 games. Despite him publicly claiming his desire to remain a Golden Knight, though, Perron ended up signing a four-year, $16 million contract with the Blues as an unrestricted free agent last summer.
Perron’s 2018-19 campaign, statistically speaking, wasn’t as impressive as his lone season in Vegas (he only tallied 46 points this season). But at the end of the day, he played an integral role for the Blues as they turned what appeared to be a train wreck of a season into one of the more memorable Stanley Cup runs in recent memory.
Pretty fair trade, no?
Of course, Perron isn’t the only former Golden Knight to win the Stanley Cup Wednesday night. Don’t forget about the legendary Chris Thorburn! As you may or may not remember, the Golden Knights claimed Thorburn from the Winnipeg Jets in the expansion draft a couple years back. He never played a single game for the Knights, though, as he became an unrestricted free agent just a couple weeks later and signed a two-year deal to play with the Blues.
Two Golden Knights legends. Thorburn hands the Cup over to David Perron. pic.twitter.com/h8ysFeQlvB
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) June 13, 2019
Congrats, David and Chris! You both earned it!
But mostly David.