RALEIGH, NC – Ron Francis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that Bill Peters has been named the team's head coach. Peters will be the 13th man to serve as head coach for the franchise, and the fourth since the team's arrival in North Carolina. Francis will introduce Peters during a news conference on Friday at noon in PNC Arena's Varsity Club, which will stream live on CarolinaHurricanes.com.
Peters, 48, has served as assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings for the past three seasons, working primarily with Detroit's defensemen and penalty kill units. Prior to joining Detroit's staff, Peters served as head coach of Rockford of the American Hockey League (AHL), guiding the Ice Hogs to consecutive 40-win seasons and Calder Cup playoff appearances in 2008-09 and 2009-10. In his final season with Rockford in 2010-11, Peters directed the second-youngest team in the AHL to a 38-33-4-5 record. The Three Hills, Alb., native helped 28 Rockford players reach the NHL during his three seasons. Eight players who played under Peters for Rockford went on to win the Stanley Cup with Chicago in 2010 or 2013 – Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jordan Henry, Antti Niemi, Corey Crawford, Bryan Bickell, Nick Leddy, Brandon Bollig and Ben Smith.
Before beginning his AHL coaching career, Peters spent three seasons with Spokane of the Western Hockey League (WHL), leading the Chiefs to the Memorial Cup title in 2008 as champions of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). Spokane established franchise records with 50 wins and 107 points that season before winning 16 of 21 WHL playoff games to capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. Peters then guided the Chiefs to four consecutive victories at the Memorial Cup, topping the host Kitchener Rangers 4-1 in the championship game. In three seasons as Spokane's head coach, Peters compiled a career WHL regular-season record of 111-82-23.
Peters got his first experience as a head coach at the University of Lethbridge, serving as the Proghorns' head coach for three seasons from 2002-2005. Prior to that, he served as assistant coach for Spokane for four seasons, helping the Chiefs to a 47-win, 100-point campaign and the WHL Western Conference championship in 1999-00 under current Red Wings' head coach Mike Babcock.
Peters also has gained international head coaching experience for Canada, capturing the gold medal at the 2008 U-18 Junior World Cup. His career coaching statistics are below.
