The Chicago Blackhawks announced today the team has named Bill Peters Head Coach of the Rockford IceHogs, Chicago’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate.

Peters joins the IceHogs after serving the past three years as Head Coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, where he led the Chiefs to the 2008 Memorial Cup Championship. He was also recently named Head Coach for Canada’s National Men’s World Junior Under-18 team, which will compete in the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial August 12-16 in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The Alberta native is third on the Chiefs franchise list with 115 wins and 217 games coached. Under Peters, the Chiefs improved in wins and points over the past three years, including a 14 win and 27 point improvement from 2006-07 to 2007-08.

Before serving as the Chiefs’ Head Coach he spent three years as Assistant Coach of the Chiefs, where during the 1999-00 season he was named Western Conference’s All-Star Assistant Coach.