Blackhawks' Corey Perry out for 'foreseeable future;' agent says absence is for personal matters

Chicago Blackhawks forward Corey Perry will not be with the team for the "foreseeable future," according to general manager Kyle Davidson. Davidson said Saturday that it was a "team decision."

Shortly after Davidson spoke with the media, Perry's agent released a statement saying his client stepped away to attend to "personal matters."

Perry did not dress for Friday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. On Wednesday, the veteran forward sat in the press box as a healthy scratch for Chicago's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Amid Perry's absence from practice on Thursday, players and coaches offered little in the way of clarification, but something just seemed off.

"We haven’t really gotten any details on what’s going on with Corey Perry," fellow offseason signing Nick Foligno told reporters.

"We've got a lot of young guys, so it's kind of a shock at first," he added. "But it's being a pro. We talk about it and this is an opportunity to do that. It's the outside noise that you have to push away, whether it's this or anything else that's going on in your life."

"I just wanted to start by saying I know you have questions about Corey Perry not playing last night and attending practice today but we’re going to keep that internal in the organization right now," Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said Thursday via Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports. "I’m not going to be able to answer any more questions on that."

For what it's worth, Richardson stuck to the exact same script on Friday, too.

Blackhawks rookie star Connor Bedard wouldn't reveal anything, either.

"I'm not going to speak on it too much," Bedard said of Perry. "Obviously it sucks he's not here but we don't really have too much information on it or anything yet, but of course he's a big part of the team and it sucks he can't be here today."

Perry was previously with the team Tuesday, working with Bedard during a shooting drill.

In corresponding news, the Blackhawks announced that Taylor Hall will miss the remainder of the season due to knee surgery after suffering an ACL injury.