With the NHL Draft a short time away, the number of NHL clubs without a head coach has shrunk from four to three with Carolina hiring Bill Peters as head coach.
The 48-year-old was an assistant with Detroit the last seasons was hired by Carolina to take the team to the next level after missing the playoffs each of the last five seasons. This is his first head coaching job in the NHL, but he did coach Chicago’s AHL affiliate in Rockford prior to joining the Red Wings. When he coached the Ice Hogs, he coached several prospects that ended up playing on Chicago’s 2010 and 2013 Stanley Cup winning teams including Corey Crawford, Antti Niemi, and Nick Leddy.
Carolina hopes to re-establish a culture of winning and success and Peters is the man for the job. He’s been successful wherever he has been a coach. His coaching career started as an assistant under Detroit bench boss Mike Babcock with Spokane Chiefs in the WHL. With Babcock they won the WHL Western Conference championship in 1999-00. His next stop was his first head coaching job with the University of Lethbridge, serving as the Proghorns’ head coach for three seasons from 2002-2005. He then returned to Spokane as head coach for three seasons prior to taking the Rockford job. His time in Spokane concluded in the Chiefs winning the Memorial Cup title in 2008. Spokane set new 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.
With Detroit, Peters handed the defense and penalty kill units. The Red Wings ranked 12th in the NHL percentage-wise at 83.0 and Detroit’s defensive unit led by Niklas Kronwall was pretty solid at possessing the puck after creating turnovers. Similarly, Carolina wasn’t too far behind at 17th in the league.
With a new leadership team in place led by general manager Ron Francis, the Hurricanes should be able to return to being relevant in the league in just a short time.
