By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
One of major junior hockey’s plum jobs became available Friday when head coach Bill Peters left the Memorial Cup-champion Spokane Chiefs.
Peters, who had signed a three-year contract extension with the WHL’s Chiefs on March 6, has signed on as the head coach of the AHL’s Rockford, Ill., IceHogs. He is the eighth head coach in that franchise’s history. The IceHogs, who are about to start the second year of a 10-year deal as the main affiliate of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, played their first eight seasons in the United league before moving to the AHL last season. .
The 43-year-old Peters, who is in Calgary this week as head coach of a Canadian under-18 team that will travel to Europe next week for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament, wasn’t available for comment yesterday. He had been head coach of the Chiefs for three seasons.
“I think this is a good opportunity at this stage of my career and it wouldn’t have been possible without the experience and success we had in Spokane,” Peters said in a statement released by the IceHogs. “I’m excited about the opportunity with the Chicago Blackhawks organization. In meeting with them I felt good about the direction their team is going. It is an organization in the upswing and I was impressed with the people . . .”
Peters, a native of Three Hills, Alta., put up 115 regular-season victories with the Chiefs, third on their alltime list. Last season, the Chiefs won 50 games to tie a franchise record and set a franchise record with 107 points.
He originally worked with the Chiefs as a scout, before moving up and working as an assistant coach under head coach Mike Babcock. He and Babcock, now head coach of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, remain good friends. In fact, when Babcock took the Stanley Cup to a function in Saskatoon last week, Peters showed up with the Memorial Cup.
In Rockland, Peters replaces Mike Haviland, who now is an assistant coach on head coach Denis Savard’s staff with the Blackhawks.
At the moment, Rockland’s roster includes three former WHLers – forwards Troy Brower, Adam Hobson and Kris Versteeg. Hobson played for two seasons under Peters in Spokane.
Spokane general manager Tim Speltz said a search for a replacement will begin immediately.
Assistant coach Hardy Sauter, who just completed his first year with the Chiefs, is expected to get some consideration.
The Chiefs now are the only one of the WHL’s 22 teams without a head coach. Since the end of last season, the Calgary Hitmen (Dave Lowry), Kamloops Blazers (Barry Smith), Red Deer Rebels (Jesse Wallin) and Regina Pats (Dale Derkatch) have put new head coaches in place.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS: Among the players with Peters at the under-18 team’s selection camp is F Jimmy Bubnick of the Kamloops Blazers. That camp opens today with 40 players competing for 22 spots. The team leaves Wednesday, with the Ivan Hlinka tournament scheduled for Aug. 12-16 in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Piestany, Slovakia. . . . Of the four coaches who were in the Memorial Cup, Peters and Peter DeBoer (OHL’s Kitchener Rangers) have moved on. DeBoer now is head coach of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. George Burnett of the OHL’s Belleville Bulls and Benoit Groulx of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques haven’t moved. Groulx also is head coach of Canada’s national junior team. . . . At least two AHL teams, the Rochester Americans (Florida Panthers) and Portland Pirates (Buffalo Sabres) are looking for head coaches.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
