Éric Perrin (born November 1, 1975) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

that last played for

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväskylän Palloilija ...

in the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding lea ...

. As of December 2017, he is the highest scoring foreign player in the history of Liiga.

Playing career

As a youth, Perrin played in the 1988

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament (french: Tournoi international de hockey pee-wee de Québec) is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, ...

with a

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from c ...

team from

Laval, Quebec Laval (; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. It is in the southwest of the province, north of Montreal. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City, and the thirteenth largest city in C ...

. Perrin played college hockey at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

, where he played with future

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...

team mate Martin St. Louis and

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

goaltender Tim Thomas. and went undrafted by the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. After spending several years playing minor league hockey, including a stint in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, Perrin was playing for the

Hershey Bears The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg. The current Bears club has played in the American Hockey League since the 1938–39 season maki ...

when he was called up by the Lightning with 4 games left in the

2003–04 NHL season The 2003–04 NHL season was the 87th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup champions were the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the best of seven series four games to three against the Calgary Flames. For the fourth time in ...

. He registered one assist in the playoffs on the way to the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup. Perrin is best friend of Lightning winger Martin St. Louis. During the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, Perrin re-signed with the AHL

, where he was named the team's MVP, as well as the Man of the Year for his charitable contributions. The next season, rather than re-sign with the Bears, he elected to go back overseas, and signed with Swiss team

SC Bern Schlittschuh Club Bern ('' Ice-skating Club Bern'' in English) is an ice hockey team based in Bern, Switzerland. They play in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. For the 18th year in a row, the club is the mos ...

. During the Playoffs in the Swiss Nationalliga B he played with the EHC Biel. Once the Swiss season ended, he re-signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and on November 2, 2006, he scored his first NHL goal against the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Well ...

into an empty net in a 5-2 Lightning victory. Perrin signed with the Atlanta Thrashers on July 1, 2007. In the

2007–08 NHL season The 2007–08 NHL season was the 91st season of operation (90th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). It began on September 29, 2007, and the regular season ended April 6, 2008. The Stanley Cup playoffs ended on June 4, with the ...

with the Thrashers, he recorded career highs in assists (33) and points (45). He last played for the Atlanta Thrashers of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and he joined Avangard Omsk of the KHL on September 3, 2009. Perrin was cut from his try-out with the

on October 5, 2010. In his

career he recorded 32 goals and 104 points in 245 games with the

and Atlanta Thrashers. He was also a member of the 2004 Stanley Cup winning

. In October 2010 he signed a two-year deal to return with JYP of the

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

. On February 23, 2015, Perrin announced that JYP and he had come to a mutual agreement in which Perrin would leave JYP at the end of the 2014-15

season. On April 21, 2015,

HC TPS TPS or Turun Palloseura is an ice hockey team and 10-time champion of SM-liiga and 1-time champion of SM-sarja. They play in Turku, Finland, at Gatorade Center. In terms of championships, TPS is the second all-time most successful team in SM-L ...

announced they had signed Perrin as a free agent to a multi-year contract. Prior to the 2018–19 season, Perrin continued his longevity in returning to former club, JYP Jyväskylä, on a one-year contract on June 11, 2018. On March 19 JYP lost on the first round of Liiga playoffs and Perrin retired. Post retirement, he is Director of Hockey Operations for the youth travel hockey club DME Swamp Rabbits out of the Daytona Ice Arena in Daytona Beach, FL.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Eric 1975 births Living people Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) players Atlanta Thrashers players Avangard Omsk players Canadian ice hockey centres Cleveland Lumberjacks players EHC Biel players French Quebecers Hershey Bears players HPK players Ice hockey people from Quebec Jokerit players JYP Jyväskylä players Kansas City Blades players Quebec Rafales players SC Bern players Sportspeople from Laval, Quebec Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning players HC TPS players Undrafted National Hockey League players Vermont Catamounts men's ice hockey players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Russia Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans