perl -le '@x=(9,8,4,3,6,5); print ((sort @x)[0])'

##</code><code>##

 perl -le '@x=(9,8,4,3,6,5); print join ":", ((sort @x)[1..$#x])'

# OP:
@array = sort @array;
shift @array;

#using above:
@array = ((sort @array)[1..$#array])