Calgary Flames name Peters head coach

After resigning Friday as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, Bill Peters joked that he hoped not to be unemployed very long.

But discussions already were underway with the Calgary Flames, and Peters on Monday was introduced as the Flames’ new head coach in a press conference at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.

Flames general manager Brad Treliving said Peters was the man he wanted when he fired former Flames coach Glen Gulutzan last week.

“He’s a student of the modern game and relationship-driven with his players,” Treliving said.

Peters, 53, also is a coach who failed to get the Hurricanes into the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of his four seasons. The Flames reached the playoffs in 2016-17, Gulutzan’s first season as coach, but faded in the last month this season and failed to qualify.

“I’ve read where the guys were disappointed not to be in the playoffs and I’m right there with them,” Peters said.

Peters was referring to the Flames, his new team. But he later said that he was “hungry” to be a part of the playoffs after missing out the past four seasons.

Asked by the Calgary media about his reasons for opting out of the final year of his Carolina contract, Peters again talked of believing Canes owner Tom Dundon and a new general manager should be able to pick the coach. Peters was hired in June 2014 by then-general manager Ron Francis, who was reassigned by Dundon in March to president of hockey operations.

“I appreciate my time there,” Peters said.

But a job with the Flames, he said, was an opportunity to “come home.” Peters is an Alberta, Canada, native. Born in Three Hills, he later moved to Killam and played hockey at Red Deer College.

He also has a history with Treliving, who was co-general manager for Team Canada in the 2016 IIHF World Championship when Peters coached the Canadians to the gold medal.

Peters returns as Canada’s head coach this year for the Worlds, to be held in Denmark, although Treliving noted, “We don’t want to be going to any more World Championships, we want to be in the playoffs.”

Peters said part of the appeal of the Flames job was being able to coach a team in a Canadian city where he said the “energy and buzz” is different, especially on game days.

Peters, in the press conference, did not compare Calgary with Raleigh in terms of hockey interest. But in an interview with the Flames web site, he mentioned that while Raleigh now has become a traditional hockey market and the Canes have passionate fans, “We both know there’s a difference.”

Peters, in an interview Friday with the News & Observer, said he had no regrets about his four-year stay in Raleigh other than not winning as much as everyone wanted. But Monday he did say his tirade against former Canes goalie Eddie Lack, when he loudly said Lack needed to “make a (expletive) save” was not his proudest moment as a coach.

Peters said he apologized to Francis and to Lack, saying that was a “little over the top.”

Peters, as he often said with the Canes, insisted he wanted the "hardest-working team" in the league, one that he said "plays quick and plays hard." To be successful, he said, a team needs the depth to roll four lines during games and have quality special teams.

"We're going to set realistic expectations and they will be high," Peters said. "This team is right there."

This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Calgary Flames name Peters head coach."