Blackhawks Corey Perry away from team for ‘foreseeable future’

Perry, 38, has not played in Chicago’s past two games and did not practice with the Blackhawks this week.

“He is away from the team and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” general manager Kyle Davidson said Saturday. “We are unable to provide any update on this front.”

Davidson said the decision to remove Perry from the team was made by management.

“It has been the team’s decision so far to keep him out. He is coming from the organization,” he said.

But Perry’s agent, Pat Morris, said in a statement Saturday that it was the player who decided to leave the Blackhawks.

“Corey Perry has stepped away from the Chicago Blackhawks to attend to personal matters. Corey and his family value privacy at this time,” Morris wrote.

Davidson declined to comment on whether Perry was injured. He did not rule out the possibility of a trade deal for Perry.

He added: “It is irresponsible to start ruling anything out, so I will not comment on any possible outcomes.”

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 -6. He skated 14:43 Sunday in Chicago’s loss to Buffalo.

Perry is a 19-year NHL veteran who has scored 421 goals and 471 points in 1,273 games. He won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in the 2006-2007 season and won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player in the 2010-2011 season.

The Blackhawks are without another former Hart Trophy winner as well: Winger Taylor Hall is expected to miss the rest of the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and surgery. Davidson said he’s not looking to add a veteran to the lineup right now in the absence of Hall and Perry.

“There’s been a lot of growth in the group as a team. We’ve brought in some players, but we’ve had some strong leaders here already,” he said. “I have no fear of having enough good leadership to do it [team] straight ahead.”

The Blackhawks are second to last in the Western Conference with a record of 6-12-1 (12 points).