Thrashers’ Perrin hopes for trade

Eric Perrin hopes to be playing for some team other than the Thrashers come Wednesday evening.

“I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that,” Perrin said after Monday’s practice. “It’s no secret things haven’t gone the way I wanted them to.”

The forward’s playing time has dropped 20 percent since last season. His scoring has dropped by more than 50 percent with his shift to the checking-centered third and fourth lines. His happiness has dropped even further as he has felt let down by a franchise he worked for on and off the ice.

Less than a year ago, he received the Dan Snyder Memorial Trophy as the Thrashers player who “best embodies perseverance, dedication and hard work without reward or recognition, so that his team and teammates might succeed.”

Now, as the 3 p.m. Wednesday trade deadline nears, Perrin hopes there’s another NHL team that remembers him that way and hasn’t forgotten the 45 points he scored last season.

“I’m disappointed I’m at this point with this organization,” said Perrin, who has 15 points this season, with five goals and 10 assists. “I thought I’d proven something, that I’d be a part of the rebuilding. I thought I deserved a better fate.”

It’s not a sure thing the Thrashers will find a taker for Perrin, who becomes a free agent unless signed before July 1. His strong points are the versatility to play all three forward positions and either special team, plus his playoff experience as a member of the 2003-04 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

But his main contribution this season has come on a penalty kill unit that ranks last in the league, and he has played sparingly on the power play. Seven other Thrashers forwards have gotten more time with a man advantage, and his power play time is a fifth of what it was last season.

Thrashers coach John Anderson gave Perrin very little time with the team’s top scorers. Perrin had a stint with the second line early in the season. It didn’t last long.

“If you don’t have production, that’s the way it is,” Anderson said. “But again, I don’t think I was really relying on Eric to score 50 points this year. If he did, great, he would have had that opportunity.

“I love Eric Perrin. I really like him as a player. I’m not that concerned about his scoring production.”

Anderson was coaching the AHL’s Chicago Wolves last season when only Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa scored more points for the Thrashers than Perrin did. To Anderson, that season is history.

“The game is ruthless in the sense,” Anderson said. “It’s what have you done for me today?”

Perrin, 33, is one of the NHL’s smaller players at 5 feet 9, 180 pounds. He can’t make up for that with blazing speed, either. But he is smart and manages to be one of the team’s least-penalized players while also being one of its hardest-working. Perrin makes it a point to get the most out of what he has.

“I’ve been a fighter all my career,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to keep doing. [A new team] would get somebody that has pride. I’d give it my all whether it’s practice or a game.”