Former Carolina Hurricanes GM Ron Francis has a made a statement on allegations of abuse against Bill Peters while he was the coach of the Hurricanes that goes completely against a statement made by the team's former owner. In his statement, Francis said he was made aware of physical incidents involving two players and Peters while he was still with Carolina. Francis claims he took immediate action and then briefed the team's ownership on it. He said to his knowledge, no further incidents occurred.
That statement is in complete contradiction of one made by former owner Peter Kermanos, who said this week that he would have fired Peters "in a nanosecond" had he been made aware of any abuse.
Ex-Hurricanes defenseman Michal Jordan claims Peters kicked him while on the bench during a game and punched another player in the head. That was shortly after Akim Aliu accused Peters of directing racial slurs at him a decade ago while with the Rockford IceHogs. Peters has since admitted to Aliu's accusation, and resigned as head coach of the Calgary Flames.
Peters coached the Hurricanes for four seasons before taking the head coaching job with the Calgary Flames prior to the 2018-19 season. He issued a letter of apology to Aliu that stated he had apologized to the entire Rockford locker room shortly after using the N-word with him. That's something Aliu has stated did not happen.
Francis served as Carolina's general manager for four years before he was let go in April of 2018. He gave Peters a contract extension after the 2015-16 campaign, which was Jordan's last NHL season. Francis is now the GM of Seattle's NHL team, which will start playing in 2021-22.
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