RALEIGH, N.C. _ Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on Wednesday confirmed the accusations by former Cane Michal Jordan that the defenseman was kicked by former coach Bill Peters and that another player was punched during a game.
"Talking about the incident with Bill, for sure happened, the two issues that are in question," Brind'Amour told the media in New York, where the Canes face the Rangers on Wednesday.
Peters, head coach of the Calgary Flames, left the Canes after the 2017-18 season. Jordan, a native of the Czech Republic, last played for the Canes in the 2015-16 season and is now with a KHL team.
Brind'Amour, an assistant coach on Peters' Canes staff for four years, did not say which player was punched by Peters, as Jordan alleged Tuesday on Twitter. He said the matter was taken to Canes management.
"To me it's what happened after that I'm proud about, actually," Brind'Amour said Wednesday. "The way the players handled it and the way the sports staff handled it, which was to bring it to management right away, And then management handled it correctly and never heard of it again. ... It was definitely dealt with, in my opinion, correctly. ... We've definitely moved past that."
Former NHL defenseman Akim Aliu tweeted Monday night 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." Aliu's tweet did not mention Peters by name but referred to him as the protege of Mike Babcock, the coach fired last week by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Aliu, born in Nigeria, played for Peters in 2009-10, his first professional season, with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League. Another former IceHogs player, Sean McMorrow, later tweeted that Peters was the "worst human being to coach ... treated me terrible on an AHL team (IceHogs)."
Asked Wednesday why it took so long for the players' accusations to be made public, Brind'Amour said, "No, because players are afraid to speak up. To be honest with you, everybody under the coach are afraid to speak out at times because there's a big gap in the power structure. The players have way more power now and I think they realize that and I think it's important for them to speak out on whatever is important. ... They definitely have more power and they need to speak up."
Brind'Amour, in his media scrum Tuesday at PNC Arena, was questioned about the Peters situation in Calgary and the Aliu and McMorrow tweets about the slurs and bullying and asked, "Any evidence of that you remember as an assistant coach?"
Brind'Amour's reply: "That's a tough one. I don't think I can comment on stuff like that. First of all, I don't really know what's been said. That's not our issue to deal with. Calgary, their GM said they're looking into it. They've got to get to the bottom of it, obviously that's a serious thing. But that's their issue to deal with."
Ron Francis was the Canes general manager who hired Peters, a former Detroit Red Wings assistant under Babcock, in June 2014. Francis, now the general manager of the Seattle NHL expansion franchise, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Flames general manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday night that the team and the NHL would continue to review the accusations against Peters. The Flames play a road game Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres and Treliving said Peters would not be behind the bench and would be replaced by interim head coach Geoff Ward.
