Corey Perry said Friday he intends to continue his playing career next season and would like to do so with the Montreal Canadiens after the team's playoff run came to an end in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

“I intend to play hockey next year. I think there’s a lot of good hockey left in me and I’d like to come back and experience Montréal for being Montréal,” Perry told reporters.

The 36-year-old scored nine goals and posted 21 points in 49 games with the Canadiens after signing a one-year, $750,000 deal with the team in December. He added four goals and 10 points in 22 playoff games with the club.

With the Canadiens up against the salary cap to start the season, Perry was placed on waivers, and his agent Pat Morris said last month he asked teams not to claim the veteran forward.

“So I did call three teams that looked like they would have the need for him, to ask them not to pick him up on waivers,” Morris told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic. “It wasn’t a threat to retire or anything, but basically ‘can you adhere to who Corey Perry is. If your thought is to pick him up on waivers, please don’t.’

“Two of the teams said, ‘We were going to put in a claim until this call. We’ll respect his career.'”

A Stanley Cup winner with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007, Perry spent the 2019-20 on a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars, posting five goals and nine points in 27 games as the team also reached the Stanley Cup Final. 

“Hard. Same result for me, losing to the same team. It’s tough," Perry said Friday of falling short again. "You work so hard all season and it just comes to screeching halt.”

A veteran of 16 NHL seasons, Perry has missed the playoffs just three times over the course of his career, which spans 1,094 games.