Depending on who you ask, the Calgary Flames' new head coach Bill Peters is either a boon for the city, or the team is taking a problem off the Carolina Hurricanes' hands.
The Flames named Peters as the team's new coach this week, after previous head coach Glen Gulutzan and assistants Dave Cameron and Paul Gerrard were fired.
Peters resigned as head coach of the Hurricanes — a team with a worse playoff record than the Flames — with a year left on his contract.
If you ask hockey writer Brian LeBlanc, who is based in Raleigh and writes for SB Nation blog Canes Country, many North Carolinians would say Calgary's gain is also a win for their team.
"Hurricanes fans … can't shuttle Peters to the waiting cab at the service entrance to PNC Arena fast enough," LeBlanc told the this week.
"He's a really good guy. But as far as being a hockey coach, I think that the time had kind of run out on his time with the Hurricanes and it was probably best for everyone that he move on."
LeBlanc has covered the Hurricanes since 2007, so he's seen the team perform under four head coaches.
He said he wouldn't go so far as to say the hire is a loss for Calgary, but described Peters as trying to coach the team he wanted — not the team he had.
"In some cases, Bill was a really good fit for this squad. He did a good job after Kirk Muller was here, identifying a system that he wanted to play at implementing," he said.
"But where I think his biggest failing was, was that when that system started to go sideways, he didn't really show himself to be all that much of an adaptable guy. He just said, 'You know, keep working the same way and eventually things will come' and after a while, they didn't."
Originally from Alberta
Peters, 53, is originally from Three Hills, Alta. He's the Flames' fourth coach in nine years.
His first coaching job was with the University of Lethbridge's Pronghorns, and he played hockey with the University of Alberta's Augustana campus and for the Red Deer College Kings.
He was the head coach of the Canadian team that won gold at the 2016 men's world hockey championship, and assistant coach of the gold-medal-winning team in 2015. He's set to coach Canada again at the 2018 IIHF World Championship in Denmark next month.
He also assisted Red Wings coach Mike Babcock for three seasons in Detroit before heading to Raleigh.
"The pedigree was there and the pedigree was good, and if you look at the numbers Bill didn't have a bad time of it here. But the $64,000 question is why those statistics never actually translated into any success on the ice. The Hurricanes basically plateaued the last three years Peters was here," he said.
The Flames finished 20th in the 2017-18 league standings with a record of 37-35-10-84 while the Hurricanes were close behind in 21st place with a record of 36-35-11-83.
LeBlanc said one thing he's interested to see is how Peters handles a player like Matthew Tkachuk, who he described as an emotional, physical player.
"He's never had a player like that in Raleigh … but other than him, the Flames' roster is very resembling of the Hurricanes' roster."
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener