Ex-Flames coach Bill Peters to join AJHL's Grande Prairie Storm: report

Apr 21 2022, 9:48 pm

Bill Peters is returning to coaching hockey in Alberta. 

Peters, the former Calgary Flames bench boss, is resurfacing as the head coach of the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, according to Rod Pedersen of The Rod Pedersen Show.

Peters resigned from the Flames in November 2019 amidst the wake of allegations of racism made by former player Akim Aliu, who accused Peters of racist behaviour a decade ago when the pair were together with the Chicago Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate in Rockford during the 2009-10 season.

“Please accept this as a sincere apology to you and the entire Calgary Flames organization, for offensive language I used in a professional setting a decade ago,” Peters wrote in a letter to Treliving, a statement he shared with Sportsnet and TSN at the time.

“I know that my comments have been the source of both anger and disappointment, and I understand why. Although it was an isolated and immediately regrettable incident, I take responsibility for what I said.”

Former Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Michal Jordan also accused Peters of kicking him and punching one of his teammates in the head shortly after Aliu’s allegations surfaced.

Peters is 199-175-64 all-time as a head coach in the NHL with the Flames and Carolina Hurricanes. He was fired from Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, a team in the Kontinental Hockey League, last November.

He has also worked the bench as an assistant coach for three seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and spent three seasons as head coach of the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League from 2008 to 2011.

Peters last commanded a junior bench as coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League from 2005 to 2008.

Aaron VickersAaron Vickers

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