The spotlight blasting former Chicago Blackhawks right winger Corey Perry isn’t like being named the first star.
As has been widely reported, the 38-year-old NHL veteran and native of Haileybury, Ont. was put on waivers Tuesday over something the tight-lipped Hawks would only say was a “workplace” incident.
The team was quick to torpedo online rumours claiming Perry’s demise was connected to misconduct involving the family of No. 1 draft pick Conor Bedard.
“This does not involve any players or their families and anything that suggests otherwise or anyone that suggests otherwise is wildly inaccurate and, frankly, it’s disgusting,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said on Tuesday.
NHL insider Frank Seravalli said on his Daily Faceoff Live show the rumours were “bulls–t”.
“Look, I don’t swear often on this show, but I want to let you know that the stuff that’s been floating around about Corey Perry and one of his teammate’s mothers is f——- bulls—,” Seravalli said.
The forward was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks where he starred for 14 seasons before moving on to Dallas, Montreal and Tampa before landing in Chicago.
Perry’s wife, Blakeny, is also a Northern Ontario girl, hailing from Timmins. The pair met while she was studying at Western University and he was toiling for the Knights. They have a six-year-old son and spend the off-season in London.
Perry and Blakeny met through a mutual friend while she was working a local watering hole. A first date was at African Lion Safari south of Cambridge and the pair were hitched in 2015.
The star is known for his love of privacy. Even in his best man’s speech at his brother’s wedding he didn’t have much to say.
“All he got out was, ‘Hi, I’m Corey, A.J.’s brother,’ and started bawling,” wife Blakeny told The Athletic. “I had to go up and stand beside him and say the speech for him. He wouldn’t stop crying. He’s just an emotional guy.”
Perry later said: “I’m a big softie, I guess. On the ice, it’s a different person.”
In his off time, Perry reportedly likes to fish and prefers a pickup truck to a Porsche.
“He only gives so much to the (public),” Blakeny told The Athletic in 2022. “No one gets to see the real him. What they see on the ice is what they perceive to be his personality. It’s almost like he is a ‘Jekyll and Hyde.’ Who he is on the ice is one person, and off the ice is another.
“You’ve just got to get to know him.”
