Corey Perry And Brent Burns Carry The Torch For 2003 NHL Draft Class

Twenty-two years ago in Nashville, the 2003 NHL draft started off with a bang. With the first selection, the Pittsburgh Penguins made the rare move of selecting a goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury.

As it turns out, they weren’t wrong. Fleury helped bring three Stanley Cups to Pittsburgh in 2009, 2016 and 2017 and by the time he hung up his pads after playing out his 21st year with the Minnesota Wild in 2024-25, he was widely renowned as one of the best-loved characters in the game and a future Hall of Famer.

The numbers don’t lie. Fleury sits second all-time among goaltenders in both games played (1,055) and wins (behind only Martin Brodeur). As an original ‘Golden Misfit’ with the Vegas Golden Knights, he reached the Stanley Cup final in 2017, then won the Vezina Trophy and shared the William Jennings Trophy with Robin Lehner in 2021.

After a farewell tour around the league last season, Fleury officially announced his retirement on May 6, after the Wild’s first-round playoff loss to those same Golden Knights. And while defenseman Ryan Suter has reportedly not yet closed the door on a 21st season of his own after spending last season with the St. Louis Blues, two other stars from the 2003 draft class have signed one-year contracts to chase a championship in new locales.

On July 1, 40-year-old Corey Perry inked a one-year free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Kings. Per PuckPedia, it carries a $2 million base salary and $2 million in potential bonuses based on games played and playoff outcomes.

Originally drafted 28th overall by the Kings’ geographic rivals, the Anaheim Ducks, Perry won a Stanley Cup in Anaheim in his second NHL season, in 2007. In 2011, he scored 50 goals to win the Rocket Richard trophy and was named the Hart Trophy winner as league MVP.

Since Perry was bought out by the rebuilding Ducks in 2019, he has made a name for himself as a bit of a playoff mercenary, signing short-term deals with contending teams in hopes of adding another championship to his trophy case.

That hasn’t happened yet, but he has come consistently close. In six years since leaving Anaheim, Perry has been to the Stanley Cup final five times with four different teams: the Dallas Stars in 2020, the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022 and the Edmonton Oilers in 2024 and 2025.

After the Oilers eliminated the Kings in the first round of each of the last three post-seasons, Perry will now see if he can bring his magic to the other side. His latest contract offer came from the same man who originally signed him in Edmonton, new Los Angeles GM Ken Holland.

Among his 2003 draft class, Perry now sits third in regular-season games played (1,392) and goals (448) and first in penalty minutes (1,487). His playoff numbers are even more impressive. After his latest run to the final, Perry’s 236 playoff games rank him third all-time behind only Chris Chelios (266) and Nicklas Lidstrom (263). These last six years, he has cemented himself as one of hockey’s playoff traditions.

Then there’s Brent Burns, who the Minnesota Wild originally selected as a right winger with the 20th overall pick in 2003. Burns played 36 games with the Wild as an 18-year-old in 2003-04. With Fleury’s retirement, he is now the only active player to have played NHL games before the salary cap was instituted following the 2004-05 lockout.

Burns made the official switch to defense in 2006. And while he went on to play a handful of additonal games at forward through his career, his blue-line skills blossomed. Between 2016 and 2019, he was named a Norris Trophy finalist three times in four years, and won in 2017.

Though he’s a big body at 6-foot-5 and 229 pounds, Burns has also proven to be extremely durable. He hasn’t missed a game since November of 2013 and is currently the NHL’s reigning ironman at 925 consecutive games played — fourth all-time and 139 games behind current record holder Phil Kessel.

After signing a new one-year contract with the Colorado Avalanche on July 2, Burns will become the 22nd player in NHL history to play in 22 seasons when he hits the ice for his first game this fall.

His latest deal carries a $1 million base salary and $4 million in potential bonuses. The first is an easily-attainable $3 million bonus for 10 games played, per PuckPedia — a mechanism that will allow the cap-strapped Avalanche to defer that $3 million to their 2026-27 budget if needed, with the NHL cap ceiling continuing to rise dramatically.

The second bonus is $1 million if Burns appears in more than 70 games in 2025-26, and averages more than 23 minutes of ice time. That may seem like a big ask for a 40-year-old, but Burns doesn’t miss games and the ice time is just slightly above his career average of 22:22 a night. Assignments of 23+ minutes aren’t very far in the rearview mirror, either: he played 23:13 with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022-23.

Though Burns doesn’t have any specific playoff bonuses in his contract, his new deal with Colorado puts him in a good spot to take another significant run at the Stanley Cup. If Suter doesn’t return this fall, Burns will be the longest-tenured active player in the league not to have won. He has reached the Final just once, with the San Jose Sharks in 2016.

The 2003 NHL draft has been widely regarded as one of the deepest of all time. Burns and Perry fell to the bottom half of the first round, yet were both selected well ahead of many other terrific talents. That list includes newly enshrined Hall of Famer Shea Weber and longtime Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, who were both second-round picks. And in the seventh round in 2003, the Sharks selected Joe Pavelski at No. 205.

Pavelski also never won a Cup. But when he hung up his skates after the 2024 season, he did it with the most goals (476) and points (1,068) in the entire 2003 NHL draft class. Also an elite golfer, Pavelski had an opportunity to kiss a trophy on Sunday, when he was presented with a crystal chalice after a walk-off eagle gave him first place at the 2025 American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament.