The San Jose Barracuda are bringing in former NHL defenseman Akim Aliu on a tryout, Sharks general manager Mike Grier confirmed to this news organization Wednesday.
Aliu, 34, reportedly arrived in California on Wednesday and is expected to join the Barracuda by Thursday.
“We wanted to give him an opportunity to see what he can do,” Grier told Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.
Aliu, a second-round draft pick by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007, started his professional career in 2009. He played in several leagues in North America and Europe until the 2019-2020 season when he last appeared with Litvinov of the Czech League.
Aliu, at 6-foot-3, played a combined seven NHL games, all with the Calgary Flames, during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons.
“It’s huge. I’ve prided myself on always doing things the right way morally, and never wavered through all the dark times,” Aliu told the Associated Press via text message of getting the tryout. “Extremely blessed to get this opportunity.”
In Nov. 2019, Aliu, who is Black, revealed in social media posts that he was bullied and had racist slurs directed toward him by then-Flames coach Bill Peters a decade earlier when the two were with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL.
Peters soon resigned as the Flames’ coach and Aliu’s revelations helped the NHL strengthen its personal conduct policies regarding racism and bullying.
Per the AP, Aliu was born in Nigeria to mixed-race parents and then lived in Ukraine before his family moved to Toronto.
In May 2020, Aliu penned an essay in The Players’ Tribune detailing the bullying he underwent as a junior hockey player with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires.
Aliu wrote about how, as a 16-year-old, his “refusal to strip naked and get in a bathroom in the back of the team bus with three other rookies,” led to former NHL player Steve Downie shoving “his fiberglass stick through my mouth.”
Aliu wrote that he lost “seven teeth in half a second. Blood gushing down my chest into my pants. And that was when I knew. … This game, it’s not for me.”
In June 2020 Aliu helped co-found the Hockey Diversity Alliance with several current and former NHL players, including former Sharks forwards Anthony Duclair, Joel Ward, and Evander Kane, who has since left the group.
In Feb. 2023, Aliu published an autobiography titled, “Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey” in which he graphically detailed the Downie incident and verbal abuse he underwent as a hockey-playing kid in Toronto.
The book was co-released by Scholastic and the publishing company of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
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The Barracuda, in last place in the AHL’s Pacific Division, beat San Diego 6-4 on Wednesday to improve to 19-29-9-2 this season. San Jose continues its homestand with games against Tucson on Saturday and Sunday and Ontario on Wednesday and then will have 10 regular season games remaining.
The Barracuda have eight defensemen on their roster at the moment. In Wednesday’s win, blue-liners Nikolai Knyzhov, Valtteri Pulli and Shakir Mukhamadullin each had two points.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.