Bill Peters (ice hockey)

Early life and career

Peters was born in Three Hills, Alberta, where he spent the first 10 years of his life living on a cattle and grain farm. Afterwards he moved to Killam, and started to play both ice hockey and baseball. At the age of fifteen, Peters broke his knee as his bicycle was run over by a car, an injury that hindered his intention to play professionally. He only played college hockey, two seasons for the Augustana Vikings, and one for the Red Deer College Kings, where he won the 1989 Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference championship under future mentor Mike Babcock. Afterwards, he began his managerial career coaching Killam's Junior B team at the age of 24, before moving to Texas following an assignment of his nurse wife. Peters helped open San Antonio's first ice hockey rink, and held hockey schools every summer across the United States and Canada. He also played his only game as a professional in Texas, as a last-minute replacement in 1996 for the Central Hockey League's San Antonio Iguanas.

Early career

Peters began his coaching career during the 1996-97 season when he was named as an assistant coach for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He served in that role through the end of the 2001-02 season.

Peters' then took his first head coaching job with the University of Lethbridge, and guided the Pronghorns for three seasons from 2002-03 through 2004-2005.

Spokane Chiefs

Peters was named head coach of the Spokane Chiefs in June 2005. His team posted a 25-39-8 record in his first season before taking a step forward in 2006-07 WHL season when the Chiefs posted a 36-28-8 regular-season record and qualified for the WHL playoffs for the first time since 2004.

Spokane posted a franchise-best 50 regular-season wins and 107 points in the 2007-08 WHL season en route to a third-place finish in the WHL's Western Conference. The Chiefs went on to win 16 of 21 playoff games to claim the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. Peters then guided the Chiefs to four consecutive victories to claim the Memorial Cup as Canadian Hockey League champions.

In his three seasons with the Chiefs, Peters posted a 111-82-23 regular-season record.

Rockford IceHogs

After the Chiefs won the 2008 Memorial Cup, Peters left Spokane and was named head coach of the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Aug. 1, 2008. The IceHogs posted consecutive 40-win seasons and qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs in each of Peters' first two years with the team, going 40-34-6 in 2008-09, and 44-30-6 in 2009-10. In his final season with Rockford, Peters led the second-youngest team in the AHL to a 38-33-9 record.

Eight players who played for Rockford during Peters' tenure went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 or 2013 - Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jordan Hendry, Antti Niemi, Corey Crawford, Bryan Bickell, Nick Leddy, Brandon Bollig and Ben Smith.

Detroit Red Wings

On July 8, 2011, the Detroit Red Wings named Peters as an assistant coach. Peters worked primarily with the team's defensemen and penalty-killing units.

Carolina Hurricanes

On June 19, 2014, the Carolina Hurricanes announced via their website that Peters had been hired to replace the vacant head coach position, previously held by Kirk Muller.

International coaching career

Peters served as head coach of the gold medal-winning Canadian team at the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. That under-18 team included future NHL stars Taylor Hall, Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn, Evander Kane, and Matt Duchene, among others.