Junior
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. The fight and the reasons for it was international news and strained the relationship between Aliu and his teammates. As a result, Downie was suspended five games, Aliu one 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.
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. He appeared in a total of 47 games that season, scoring 10 goals and 10 assists. 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. 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.
He carried a reputation as a difficult player to manage into the draft, and despite his early rating, fell to the second round, where the Chicago Blackhawks selected him 56th overall. Following the draft, Aliu swore that he would make teams regret not picking him earlier. Aliu remained in junior for the 2007–08 OHL season, but with a new team as he was traded to the London Knights. It was his best junior season as he scored 61 points in 60 games and then played his first professional games, joining Chicago's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs for two games once his junior season ended. Aliu was again returned to junior for the 2008–09 season. He was traded back to Sudbury midway through the season, and recorded 42 points in 45 games split between the two teams.
Read more about this topic: Akim Aliu, Playing Career
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—Kevin Wade, U.S. screenwriter, and Mike Nichols. Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)
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—J. William Fulbright (b. 1905)