Former NHL player Akim Aliu has dropped some heavy allegations on Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters.
Aliu tweeted Monday that Peters “Dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music” while he was playing in the AHL under Peters back during the 2009-2010 season. Peters has since become an NHL head coach with the Hurricanes and Flames.
Not very surprising the things we’re hearing about Babcock. Apple doesn’t fall far from the Tree, same sort of deal with his protege in YYC. Dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music. First one to
— Akim Aliu (@Dreamer_Aliu78) November 26, 2019
admit I rebelled against him. Wouldn’t you? And instead of remedying the situation, he wrote a letter to John McDonough and Stan Bowman to have me sent down to the ECHL. 20 year old on pace for 20 goals in his first pro year with zero PP/PK time was off to a great start in his
— Akim Aliu (@Dreamer_Aliu78) November 26, 2019
Pro career
— Akim Aliu (@Dreamer_Aliu78) November 26, 2019
Aliu explained the allegations further and told TSN the following on Tuesday:
He walked in before a morning pre-game skate and said ‘Hey Akim, I’m sick of you playing that n—– s—.’ He said ‘I’m sick of hearing this n—–s f—— other n—–s in the a– stuff.’ He then walked out like nothing ever happened. You could hear a pin drop in the room, everything went dead silent. I just sat down in my stall, didn’t say a word.
The same TSN report claimed two AHL teammates of Aliu were able to back up his story, and the Flames are currently conducting “a full investigation.” Aliu also accused Peters of repeating the same message later in his office.
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This is such a wild story, and the accusations are obviously incredibly serious. My main question is how are we just hearing these allegations now in 2019?
The season when the alleged racial slurs were used by Peters happened a decade ago. How does something like this fly under the radar for 10 years, especially when there are multiple witnesses who watched it?
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If a coach drops multiple racial slurs in an AHL locker room, you’d think that’d be wall-to-wall coverage in the news.
Instead, this appears to be the first we’re hearing of it.
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We’ll see what the Flames decide to do with Peters, but I’m not sure what you can do a decade after somebody allegedly dropped racial slurs in an AHL locker room.
How are they going to be able to prove any of this? Of course, I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m simply saying this seems like something that will be borderline impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.