Life after Corey Perry: How do the Blackhawks move forward with their youthful roster?

Corey Perry is gone.

But the drama surrounding his departure isn't going away anytime soon.

After a six-day internal investigation, the Blackhawks decided to place Perry on unconditional waivers Tuesday and planned to terminate his contract if no team claimed the former MVP.

Perry went unclaimed Wednesday.

What Perry specifically did to lead the Hawks to make this move remains a mystery. ESPN is reporting the incident happened in Columbus last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a number of toxic, sad and twisted people on social media decided to spread wild rumors about what Perry did. Some of you have seen them, but we will not repeat them here.

What I will say is people are reaching out to inquire if they are true. They include a former assistant sports editor, a well-respected NHL reporter, a radio talk show host and a good friend who is normally not prone to believe such nonsense.

The problem, however, is two-fold:

• The Hawks are still reeling from the Kyle Beach sexual abuse scandal, so anything seems possible at this point.

• It's so easy for anyone to make an official-looking story by posting a photo with a gripping headline.

It reminds me of the Enquirer and Star magazines with stories about Elvis or Bigfoot sightings.

The problem here is this nonsense can ruin lives.

Whatever Perry did, it rose to the level that the Hawks could terminate his contract without any opposition - for now anyway - from the Players Association or his agent.

Stories like this are hardly unprecedented. Jim Montgomery was another high-profile name who lost his job due to "a material act of unprofessionalism." It happened in 2020 when Dallas GM Jim Nill released Montgomery.

The reason remained a mystery for a month until Montgomery admitted he was "living a damaging lifestyle" due to alcohol abuse. Montgomery sought help and he's now coaching the Boston Bruins.

While Perry has a reputation as a hard-nosed player who was often hated by opponents, his "unacceptable" conduct definitely caught some well-respected people off guard.

One is Hawks coach Luke Richardson, who was an assistant in Montreal when Perry played there in 2020-21.

"I recommended (him with) my good faith ... to come here," Richardson said after the Hawks' 4-3 win over Seattle at the United Center on Tuesday. "He was doing his job on the ice. Other than that, I don't know really know what went on off the ice. ...

"But there's no really second guessing of it. We signed him as a really good player to help us in our time of transition here. He's showed he's done that in the past, so it's unfortunate that we're in this situation."

Lightning coach Jon Cooper spoke glowingly of Perry three weeks ago when the Hawks played at Tampa Bay.

"I could be here all day," Cooper said when asked what Perry meant to the Lightning from 2021-23. "What he meant, not only to this organization but to me personally. ... I don't know where he's going to end up in his career when he finally finishes, but I hope he's back here with us because you're not going to meet somebody more first class than Corey Perry. ...

"He was a gem to have on this team."

Hopefully we find out what led the Hawks to take this path.

In the meantime there are 63 games left on the schedule, starting with Thursday's against Alex DeBrincat and the Red Wings. Patrick Kane, who signed a one-year deal with Detroit on Tuesday, isn't expected to play for 7-10 days.

So how do the Hawks move on?

"It is hard. It's life, right?" said forward Nick Foligno. "We don't have a ton of details, other than we just know it was something that was (serious enough to) terminate in his contract.

"So it's a hard day. It doesn't make it any easier because we care about Corey a ton and we're gonna wish him well.

"But the group in here has to galvanize around this and make sure we're holding ourselves to a high standard, and how serious the Chicago Blackhawks are about that and the culture they want to build here. We're lucky to be a part of it and (let's) make sure we go there and do that each and every day."