[Jore]

Originally Posted by btimbit

What's so confusing? His character issues are hardly unknown, what started with 'attitude issues' turned quickly into assaulting teammates. It happened when he was a kid in juniors, it still happened when he was an adult in Russia. I'm not advocating throwing out his accusations entirely based on his history, I'm just saying in a situation where the only thing we have to go on so far is word of mouth, his word isn't the one I'm going to get behind.

Early in the 2005–06 OHL season, his first in the league, Aliu was involved in an incident with Steve Downie during practice after the latter player cross-checked him in the face, knocking out three teeth. After leaving for treatment, Aliu returned to the ice and fought Downie. The incident stemmed primarily from Aliu's refusal to participate in a hazing ritual that would have forced him and the other rookies to stand naked in a cramped bus washroom.[6] The fight and the reasons for it was international news and strained the relationship between Aliu and his teammates.[7] As a result, Downie was suspended for five games, Aliu for one game, and both players demanded trades out of Windsor. Moe Mantha was given a 40-game ban from coaching by the league for the incidents and also suspended for one year as the team's general manager. The team was fined $35,000.[8]

The Spitfires traded Aliu to the Sudbury Wolves following the incident, where he was forced to sit out two months due to OHL rules that forbade trading 16-year-olds.[9] He appeared in a total of 47 games that season, scoring 10 goals and 10 assists.[10] He remained a controversial figure in the OHL, serving ten games in suspensions early in the 2006–07 season but was also ranked as the fifth best prospect for the 2007 NHL Entry Draft in an early season update by the league's scouting services.[9] He missed the final two games of the regular season for disciplinary reasons but returned to play 21 games in the playoffs as the Wolves reached the finals, losing to the Plymouth Whalers.[3]

wow, seems like there's a bigger story here