Former Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos said he would have fired the team’s previous coach and current bench boss of the Calgary Flames, Bill Peters, had the club’s general manager at the time, Ron Francis, alerted him to allegations stemming from Peters’ time there, according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times.
Karmanos, who was the majority owner from 1994 to 2018 until selling his controlling interest to Tom Dundon, told Baker on Wednesday that he would’ve relieved Peters of his duties “in a nanosecond” had he been aware of the allegations that the coach had kicked defenceman Michal Jordan in the back and punched a second player in the head while on the bench during a game, likely taking place during the 2015-16 season, the Czech D-man’s final campaign with the club.
Peters is also being investigated by the Flames after former NHLer Akim Aliu alleged on Twitter earlier this week that the coach used a racial slur while in charge of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs in 2009-10.
A group of players reportedly approached Francis, who is now the GM of the unnamed Seattle franchise, about the alleged incidents with the Hurricanes. Peters was given a two-year contract extension by Francis in the summer of 2016.
Francis has yet to comment on the allegations.
“I’m pretty upset,” said Karmanos, per Baker, adding that he learned of the allegations via the news.
“And I have my calls in to Ronnie (Francis) as well. I think he’s the one who’s going to have to tell people what he did when he found out that the coach had done these things.”
Peters resigned as the Hurricanes head coach in April 2018, opting out of the final year of his contract, shortly after Francis was removed from his post as GM, and eventually fired. Peters joined the Flames days later.
“Look, I’m probably as upset as anybody could be,” said Karmanos. “I take pride in our organizations. I’ve always taken pride in playing the game the right way and all of that stuff. So I’m fed up.”
Current Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who served as an assistant under Peters during the time of the alleged incident there, told reporters Wednesday that the allegations made by Jordan on Twitter “for sure happened.“
Peters penned an apology letter to the Flames about the Aliu incident Wednesday night, but did not make any references to the Jordan allegations.
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