Bill Peters hired as Carolina Hurricanes head coach
The Carolina Hurricanes have hired Detroit Red Wings assistant coach Bill Peters to be the team’s new head coach.
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Peters, 48, becomes the franchise’s fourth head coach in their short history and replaces Kirk Muller who guided the Hurricanes to a 36-35-11 record as the team finished with the 13th best record in the Eastern Conference.
This is the first head coaching job for Peters who has been behind the Red Wings bench for the past three seasons and learned under one of the best head coaches in the game in Mike Babcock. Peters had also been a finalist for the vacant head coaching jobs with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Florida Panthers.
While Peters does not have head coaching experience on the NHL level, he does have head coaching experience in the AHL with the Rockford Icehogs and and in the WHL with the Spokane Chiefs.
In his three seasons with the Chiefs, Peters posted a 111-82-23 regular-season record, including winning the Memorial Cup in the 2007-2008 season.
After guiding the Chiefs to the Memorial Cup he was hired in Rockford, the Chicago Blackhawks affiliate, and was instrumental in the development of players like Corey Crawford, Antti Niemi, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Nick Leddy, Brandon Bollig, Bryan Bickell and Ben Smith.
His record in three seasons with the Icehogs was 122-97-21.
During his time with the Red Wings, Peters was responsible for coaching the defensemen and working with the penalty-killing units.
The Hurricanes have some talent to work with on the top lines, but the team has struggled mightily on the blue line and that’s where Peters’ expertise should come in handy as the team’s defense has been porous in recent years.