Evander Kane among the first to address Akim Aliu story

Those who have been monitoring the allegations of racism in hockey know how outspoken San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane has been regarding his experience with prejudice and racism in the NHL. With Akim Aliu's recent release, "Hockey is Not for Everyone", Kane further addressed these issues with TSN's Mark Masters and Rick Westhead.

"For me, it's really just disappointing, it's shocking. And the disappointment comes because I love hockey so much, and I think our sport is the greatest sport by far out of any, and all this racism does is drag it down," he said. "For me, as a player, who really wants this game and this league to grow as big as it possibly can to get on some of the levels that other leagues are on, we're not going to be able to do that until we fix this massive issue that all we've done so far is just cover it up or try to cover it up."

Kane has had issues in the past with fans making racist remarks to him about "sticking to basketball", so he completely understands where Aliu is coming from with trying to bring these incidents to light in an attempt to make the game more safe and inclusive.

"This isn't about Akim being good enough to play in the NHL or not, it's about while he was playing in the NHL, or while he was playing in the AHL, or while he was playing in the OHL, he encountered racism," he added. "Whether that happened yesterday or whether that happened 10 years ago, it makes no difference because the people - specifically to Akim's story - that were causing that sort of racism and displaying those types of remarks and verbalizing that were still active participants in our league, so it is current. It is real. It's not about how long ago it was."

Kane is one of the first NHL players or hockey personalities to openly address the Aliu story, along with TSN Insider Bob McKenzie.

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