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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
The Chicago Blackhawks said veteran forward Corey Perry will be away from the team for “the foreseeable future.”
Perry, 38, hasn’t played in Chicago’s past two games and didn’t practice with the Blackhawks this week.
“He’s away from the team and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” GM Kyle Davidson said Saturday. “We’re unable to provide any update on that front.”
The decision to send Perry away from the team was made by management, Davidson said.
“It’s been a team decision so far to hold him out. It’s coming from the organization,” he said.
But Perry’s agent, Pat Morris, said in a statement Saturday that it was the player’s decision to leave the Blackhawks.
“Corey Perry has stepped away from the Chicago Blackhawks to attend to personal matters. Corey and his family appreciate privacy at this time,” Morris wrote.
Davidson declined to comment on whether Perry was injured. He wouldn’t rule out that a trade could be in the works for Perry.
“To start ruling anything out is irresponsible, so I’m not going to comment on any possible outcomes,” he said.
Perry signed with the Blackhawks as a free agent after spending the past two seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He has four goals and five assists in 16 games, skating to a minus-6. He skated 14:43 on Sunday in Chicago’s loss to Buffalo.
Perry is a 19-year NHL veteran with 421 goals and 471 points in 1,273 games. He won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2006-07 and won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2010-11.
The Blackhawks are without another former Hart Trophy winner, too: Winger Taylor Hall is expected to miss the rest of the season because of an ACL injury and surgery. Davidson said he isn’t looking to add a veteran to the lineup right now in the absence of Hall and Perry.
“There’s been a significant growth in the group as a collective. We did bring some players in, but we had some strong leaders already here,” he said. “I have no fear that there’s enough quality leadership to carry this [team] forward.”
The Blackhawks are second-to-last in the Western Conference with a 6-12-1 record (12 points).