By Jordan Long
The Calgary Flames have their new head coach. They had been searching for one since they fired Glen Gulutzan on April 17th after the team failed to make the playoffs this season. They were 37-35-10 with 84 points. Calgary decided they had seen enough.
They were quick to replace him. They hired Bill Peters who resigned as the Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach at the end of this season. According to ESPN, Peters said, “There’s a lot of good talent and a lot of good pieces on this roster.”
This move doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Peters was an unimpressive 137-138-53 with the Hurricanes. They didn’t come close to the playoffs in the 4 years he was there. Their best finish was in 2016. The Hurricanes went 35-31-16 for 86 points but missed the playoffs by 10 points.
The Flames needed a coach with more NHL experience. Peters has that with 328 games coached. The Flames might be improved next year but may not make the playoffs. They are a few years away from doing so.
The problem with Peters is he has never coached a team to the postseason. The Flames are taking a gamble that he will. The Flames have already shown the goal is to make the postseason and anything less is a failure.
Calgary needs to give Peters at least 3 years. 2 years is not enough for him to coach them to the playoffs. It takes at least that amount of time for the Flames to understand his coaching style. If they make the postseason, Peters must coach them past the first-round in the next few years. If Peters fails to do so, the Flames may fire him. Hopefully, Peters can coach this team to be a consistent playoff team for the next few years and maybe make a trip to the Western Conference Finals. Time will only tell what kind of team they will be under Peters.
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