A wild conspiracy theory on social media surrounding the decision by the Blackhawks to waive the contract of veteran Corey Perry on Tuesday infuriated NHL insider Frank Seravalli.
The team announced last week that Perry would be away from the team “for the foreseeable future,” and on Tuesday, announced that it intends to terminate his contract after he “engaged in conduct that is unacceptable, and in violation of both the terms of his Standard Player’s Contract and the Blackhawks’ internal policies.”
But the vagueness of Perry’s absence and eventual waiving gave way to a bizarre rumor on social media that Perry had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a teammate’s family member.
While there has been no proof to suggest that it was true, it didn’t stop users on X from posting about on the social media site.
That left Seravalli visibly perturbed when he addressed the chatter during his “Daily Faceoff Live” show on Tuesday.
“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–king bulls–t,” Seravalli said.
“And I think that it’s ridiculous that it’s something that’s perpetuated on social media. It’s so far from the truth and so unfair. It’s so weird that people think that there’s some cover-up or conspiracy here that this is the real story and we’re just not talking about it because it’s salacious or something like that.”
During a Tuesday press conference, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson also shot down the rumors.
“I do want to be very clear on this one point,” Davidson said. “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.”
This all comes after NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis reported Monday night that the “Corey Perry rumor that’s going around is 100% false.”
Perry ended up in the Windy City via a trade with the Lightning in June and quickly signed a one-year, $4 million deal to play with the Blackhawks.
In his 16 games with Chicago, he put up four goals and five assists.