The WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes are planning to announce the hiring of Bill Peters as their head coach on Wednesday, Sportsnet can confirm.
The Hurricanes have scheduled a news conference for 12 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. MT.
WHL insider Gregg Drinnan was first to report that the Hurricanes were planning to hire Peters.
A former head coach of the Calgary Flames, Peters resigned from the team in 2019 following allegations of racial abuse by Akim Aliu.
Peters allegedly directed a racial slur toward Aliu “several times” while the two were together in the AHL. Aliu played for Peters when he was head coach of the Rockford IceHogs, Chicago’s AHL affiliate, for five games in the 2008-09 season and 48 games in 2009-10. Aliu also appeared in 13 games for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye in ’09-10.
Michal Jordan, who played for Peters with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, also alleged Peters kicked him and punched another unnamed player during a game.
The NHL said in 2021 it had completed an investigation of Peters.
Following his resignation, Peters joined Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg of the KHL in April 2020 and was fired in November 2022.
Peters will replace Brent Kisio, who took an assistant coaching job with the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights after eight seasons with the Hurricanes.
Peters has had two previous stints as a coach in the WHL, with the Spokane Chiefs as an assistant from 1999-2002, then as the head coach from 2005-08.
Peters, a 57-year-old native of Three Hills, Alta., had a 199-175 record as coach of Carolina and Calgary over a six-year career in the NHL.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
