CHICAGO — Former Chicago Blackhawks forwards Eddie Olczyk, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp have agreed to help the team in its search for a new general manager.

Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said Olczyk, Hossa and Sharp “are respected hockey minds who have great knowledge of the game.” Mike Forde, the executive chairman of Sportsology and a former executive with Chelsea F.C., also is advising the team on the opening.

“Alongside other advisors, we will use their expertise and industry-leading strategy while looking for our next general manager,” Wirtz said Monday in a statement posted on the team’s Twitter account.

“The perspective this group will provide is instrumental to this process and we are excited to have them assist the club with this important decision. We will start interviewing candidates this week.”

Wirtz, the son of team owner Rocky Wirtz, announced Wednesday that the team plans to interview candidates “both inside and outside of hockey.” Interim GM Kyle Davidson is among the candidates for the full-time role.

Davidson was elevated to the interim job after longtime general manager Stan Bowman resigned in October in the wake of a report by an outside law firm that found the organization mishandled allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted a player during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2010.

The report also played a role in the departure of Al MacIsaac, another of Chicago’s top hockey executives, and the NHL fined the team $2 million for “the organization’s inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response.”

Sharp and Hossa were both key performers on Chicago’s last three championship teams, in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Sharp, 40, who also works on the team’s TV broadcasts, played for the Blackhawks for 11 years, scoring 249 goals in 749 regular-season games. Hossa, 43, spent eight seasons with the team and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November.

Olczyk, 55, began and finished his career with the Blackhawks, scoring 77 of his 342 career goals in 322 regular-season games with the team. Olczyk, a cancer survivor who works as an analyst on the team’s TV broadcasts, also coached the Penguins from June 2003 to December 2005.

DEVILS: Coach Lindy Ruff will miss the next two games following the death of his father in western Canada.

The Devils said Leeson Ruff died on Friday at a hospital in Warburg, Alberta. He was 88 and had been ill.

Ruff will miss a home-and-home series with the Maple Leafs. The teams will play in Toronto on Monday and New Jersey on Tuesday.

Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine will run the Devils. He held that spot in late December and early January after Ruff tested positive for COVID-19 and missed three games.

WILD: The Minnesota Wild and left wing Jordan Greenway agreed to a three-year, $9 million contract extension that runs through the 2024-25 season.

The 24-year-old Greenway has four goals, nine assists and a career-high plus-17 rating in 33 games for the Wild this season. He is third on the team with 82 hits. The 6-foot-6, 231-pound Greenway has thrived on a line with fellow heavy hitters Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno.

Greenway made his debut with the Wild four years ago, when he became the first hockey player to participate in the Olympics, the NCAA tournament and the NHL playoffs all in the same season. He also became the first player in Wild history to record his first career goal in the playoffs.

MONDAY’S GAMES

PANTHERS 8, BLUE JACKETS 4: Sam Reinhart had his fifth career hat trick to lift visiting Florida to its fourth straight win.

Mason Marchment had two goals and four assists for a career-high six points for Florida. Aleksander Barkov, Owen Tippett and MacKenzie Weegar also scored, and Reinhart added an assist.

Anton Lundell had a career-high five assists to put him third among rookies this season with 22 and tied the franchise record.

Patrik Laine had two goals, and Gus Nyquist and Emil Bemstrom also scored for the Blue Jackets, who dropped their eighth straight to the Panthers – including a 9-2 drubbing 16 days ago – and fourth of five games at home.

CANUCKS 3, BLACKHAWKS 1: Jaroslav Halak made 20 saves, Brock Boeser scored and Vancouver won at Chicago.

Alex Chiasson and Luke Schenn also scored for Vancouver, which had dropped 4 of 5.

Connor Murphy scored for the Blackhawks, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 stops.

RED WINGS 2, DUCKS 1:  Jordan Oesterle scored 2:11 into overtime as Detroit won at home.

Dylan Larkin had a game and an assist to help Detroit win for the second time in six games. Alex Nedeljkovic, starting for the 10th time in 11 games, had 14 saves.

Rickard Rakell scored for Anaheim, and John Gibson finished with 26 saves.

SENATORS 3, OILERS 2: Tim Stutzle scored at 4:22 of overtime and Ottawa beat visiting Edmonton.

Thomas Chabot and Nick Paul scored in regulation for the Senators, and Matt Murray stopped 37 shots.

Connor McDavid and Darnell Nurse scored for the Oilers. Mikko Koskinen finished with 28 saves.

MAPLE LEAFS 6, DEVILS 4: Auston Matthews had three goals and an assist, and host Toronto scored four times in the third period to beat New Jersey.

Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists, Ilya Mikheyev had a goal and an assist, and Jason Spezza also scored to help the Maple Leafs win their fourth straight.

Jack Campbell started and gave up three goals on nine shots before he was pulled midway through the first period. Petr Mrazek had 19 saves the rest of the way.

Jesper Boquist had a goal and an assist for New Jersey, and Pavel Zacha, Andreas Johnsson and Nathan Bastian also scored. Akira Schmid had 27 saves as the Devils lost their fifth straight.

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