Insider Trading: Blackhawks initiate termination of Perry's contract

James Duthie is joined by TSN Hockey Insiders Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger to discuss the ongoing situation with Corey Perry and the Chicago Blackhawks, what led to Patrick Kane's decision to sign in Detroit, the patience level in Ottawa, and more on Insider Trading.

The Chicago Blackhawks clear up some things about Corey Perry’s dismissal from the team, but there’s still a lot of things unanswered. Where does it go from here?

Chris Johnston: The first order of business is Perry’s contract. The Blackhawks initiated the termination of that contract on Tuesday by placing him on unconditional waivers. That can happen as soon as Wednesday.

At that point, there’s a chance Perry could have a grievance over this decision. That is something he has 60 days to decide on and at this point it’s too soon to know which way he’ll go.

But it’s very clear this is a serious situation. We saw the way [Blackhawks general manager] Kyle Davidson addressed reporters and the strain it put on him.

He couldn’t reveal much but he did make it clear that it didn’t involve a player or his family. It was a workplace matter and not something that violated the law. Clearly, this is something the Blackhawks felt violated the terms of Perry’s standard player’s contract and the team’s internal policies.

Why did the Detroit Red Wings win the services of free agent forward Patrick Kane?

Chris Johnston: This was a result of a lot of hours on Zoom with Kane and his agent Pat Brisson at CAA. They talked to a number of teams these past few weeks and it probably extended a week longer than they initially thought it would before Kane made a decision.

When it comes to Detroit, what stood out was [head coach] Derek Lalonde had a strong impact on Kane during their discussions. We’ve talked [also] about the connection with Alex DeBrincat and the strong start to the season the Red Wings had.

The Red Wings also had the most cap space of any of the teams that were involved right up until the end.

There’s no timeline when Kane will play but it sounds like sometime next week we expect him to make his debut in Detroit.

Pierre LeBrun: What made a lot of headlines during this whole process was when the Toronto Maple Leafs poke their nose in this thing. [Maple Leafs general manager] Brad Treliving is notorious for investigating all the scenarios that can help his team, he’s been like that his entire career.

The reality is, yes the Leafs spoke to Kane and his camp but were not one of the three or four teams on his short list. It’s not surprising, Treliving said himself earlier this week that he is trying to upgrade the blueline and that’s their priority.

The Florida Panthers were a team that certainly tried hard. They met with him in Chicago but I don’t know that they feel that they were runners-up either. They made their pitch to play with Aleksander Barkov in sunny Florida and it wasn’t good enough.

The Buffalo Sabres also had a meeting with Kane and felt they made a good effort to land their hometown player, but they did not.

Is there any impatience coming from the new ownership of the Ottawa Senators after a 5-0 loss to the Panthers on Monday?

Darren Dreger: No, not at this point and I know that’s not what Senators fans want to hear. I would say that the patience will imminently begin to wear thin if things don’t turn around.

[Head coach] D J. Smith dove on the sword after the loss to the Panthers. Whether you enjoyed old school shenanigans or not, it’s at least evidence that the players still care, they played hard, and were literally in the fight against the Panthers.

Management vows that they are patient for the time being.

There’s also disappointment with the New Jersey Devils, who are off to a 9-9-1 start after being considered Stanley Cup contenders. Any imminent news there?

Pierre LeBrun: I think for now the Devils want to find their “A” game before they decide if they want to go the trade route. You get why because you want to make sure that you know that they are still that team that is transcending into an elite Stanley Cup contender.

They have talked to the Calgary Flames about [defenceman] Nikita Zadorov. They would like to add some physicality on their backend at some point but the reality for now is to get the ship going straight here.

After the Flames almost had to use an emergency backup goaltender on Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights, are there people around the NHL that want these types of situations to end?

Darren Dreger: Yes there are and that’s many general managers. They’ve had multiple conversations over the years and the issue has been tweaked a little bit, but it’s a bad look for the NHL. Even if it’s once a year where there’s the potential of a non-professional goalie playing in an NHL game.

[Flames goaltender] Jacob Markstrom was sick late in the day so the Flames didn’t have enough time to get their change in before the 5 p.m. deadline. It could be an easy fix, according to several NHL general managers, just a roster exemption for goalies.