Before signing with the Edmonton Oilers last week, forward Corey Perry made headlines back in November when the Chicago Blackhawks terminated his contract for “unacceptable” conduct.
While statements provided by Perry and the Blackhawks organization provided little to no clarity as to what the 38-year-old actually did, former Blackhawks player and media personality John Scott claims to know what happened.
*Editor’s Note: Scott has since walked back his comments from Monday’s podcast, saying on Wednesday they were “false and misleading.”
On a recent episode of his podcast Dropping the Gloves, Scott alleges that Perry was dropped by the Blackhawks for flirting with an NBC staff member while intoxicated on a road trip with the team in Columbus.
“He made a mistake in Columbus one night,” Scott, who also works on the NBC Sports Chicago broadcast team, said. “He drank too much and he made a pass at a staff member who worked for NBC.”
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The former enforcer, who, along with Chicago, saw stints with the Arizona Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers, and Montreal Canadiens, also defended Perry, saying multiple teams were interested in signing him after he was made available.
“Corey Perry was a model citizen in the NHL for like 18 years,” Scott said, later adding that “every team wanted this guy for the playoffs.”
Scott later claimed that had Perry been on another team, he would probably not have been let go and would have just been issued “a slap on the wrist” or minor suspension. The 41-year-old argued that his termination came in light of Chicago trying to avoid another major scandal after recently reaching a settlement with former first-round pick Kyle Beach, who accused one of the team’s former video coaches of sexual assault.
“Chicago, the environment that they live in now, if there’s any hint of anything like that, they just get rid of everything,” Scott added. “If this is any other team, he’s still on the team.”
According to Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, Perry is expected to make his Edmonton debut in Saturday’s game against the Nashville Predators.
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