Former Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos told Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times Wednesday night that he would have fired head coach Bill Peters in a “nanosecond” if he was told about the physical-abuse allegations made by former players earlier this week.

Karmanos owned the team when Ron Francis – now the general manager of NHL’s Seattle expansion franchise – was GM in Carolina. Francis was approached by a contingent of players about physical abuse by Peters first levied Tuesday afternoon by former Hurricanes defenceman Michal Jordan.

Current Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who was on the bench as an assistant coach during Peters’ entire four-year tenure in Carolina before succeeding him in 2018, confirmed Wednesday the incidents took place and that they were brought to management.

While Karmanos acknowledged Francis played things close to his vest during their tenure together, he told Baker he “absolutely” would have expected his general manager to bring an issue like that to him.

Francis has yet to speak publicly about the incidents.

“Look, I’m probably as upset as anybody could be,” Karmanos added. “I take pride in our organizations. I’ve always taken pride in playing the game the right way and all of that stuff. So I’m fed up,” Karmanos told Baker.

“And I have my calls in to [Francis] as well. I think he’s the one who’s going to have to tell people what he did when he found out that the coach had done these things,” Karmanos said.

“He kicked me pretty hard in the back during a game,” Jordan told TSN’s Frank Seravalli on Tuesday. “Even the trainers and the other guys saw it. I was at that point in my career, like I just got there, so I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want them to think I was crying. Me and my agent, we kept it secret. Now other guys are speaking out, so I felt like I could.”

Multiple sources confirmed to TSN the other physical altercation Jordan alleged in his tweet, that Peters also struck a Hurricanes unnamed defenceman in the head on the bench.

Peters did not acknowledge or address the physical altercations in his only public comments. He did not respond to a request from TSN asking for comment on those allegations.

Peters left the Hurricanes for the Calgary Flames following the 2018 season.

On Thursday morning, Akim Aliu issued a statement on an open letter Peters penned to Flames general manager Brad Treliving, calling Peters’ letter “misleading, insincere and concerning.”

Read more about Aliu’s statement and Peters’ letter here.