The National Hockey League and the Calgary Flames face critical and time-sensitive choices in response to allegations from free agent defenseman Akim Aliu that Flames head coach Bill Peters directed the N-word towards him while coaching Aliu in 2009.
Back then, Peters served as head coach of the Rockford IceHogs, an American Hockey League affiliate team of the Chicago Blackhawks. Aliu, who was born in Nigeria, was a second-round pick of the Blackhawks in the 2007 NHL draft. Two years later, he was a 20-year-old prospect on the IceHogs.
Aliu, now 30, raised this damning accusation in a series of tweets published on Tuesday.