Former Hawk draft pick calls out league for doing more for Arizona than for diversity
The Blackhawks draft Akim Aliu in the 2nd round in 2007, Aliu never cracked the Blackhawks lineup after being embroiled in issues with then Rockford IceHogs coach Bill Peters. In November 2019, Aliu went public with allegations that Peters used racial slurs at him in the IceHogs' locker room. Peter resigned four days later.
Since the end of his playing career Aliu went on to form the Hockey Diversity Alliance to address racial injustice and intolerance in hockey. On Monday Aliu took to Twitter to voice his criticism with the NHL and their current business practices. Aliu made the following comments:
"NHL doing more to keep a team around that was locked out of their arena for failing to pay their bills and is now moving to a 5 k seat arena then actually growing and diversifying the game of hockey. You really can't make this stuff up."
It's become clear that, despite the fact that the Coyotes have continued to hemorrhage money year-over-year the league remains committed to a market without long-term viability. Commissioner Bettman refuses to acknowledge the short comings of the Coyotes franchise regardless of how it gets perceived by anyone. Most recently the Coyotes and league committed to the Coyotes playing their upcoming home games at ASU Multipurpose Center where it can only seat 5,000 fans at maximum capacity.
So is Aliu correct? Does the league care more about maintaining a team in Arizona than it does about growing the game as a whole?
