Former Star Toby Petersen Named Head Coach of Texas

Toby Petersen (Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

The next head coach of the Texas Stars is very familiar with the organization. The Dallas Stars announced this morning that former Star Toby Petersen is the incoming bench boss for the AHL crew.

Petersen spent seven seasons in the Dallas organization, playing in both the NHL and AHL between 2007 and 2014. He suffered a season-ending injury seven games into the playoffs in 2014 with Texas and announced his retirement to 100 Degree Hockey at the Calder Cup Championship ceremony.

At the time, Texas was about to lose both Willie Desjardins and Doug Lidster to Vancouver and Petersen could have been a candidate for a role with Texas. Through a winding path, he got back there now.

Starting immediately the next season, Petersen began his coaching career with assistant roles in Springfield, Cleveland and Rochester. After 2020, he left Rochester and only recently returned to coaching as a skills coach with the Avalanche. Petersen worked with injured players over the last two years, including Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin, to ensure they were ready to go at full speed when their numbers were called again.

Across his playing career, Petersen played 550 AHL games, including stints with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Iowa. His NHL career included 398 games. He was a two-time AHL All-Star, a member of the All-Rookie Team in his first year and eventually a Calder Cup Champion with Texas.

And that's all pretty good for a player drafted in the ninth round.

Petersen has also been a fantastic humanitarian during his time in and around hockey. Back in 2012, one of the first stories I wrote for the AHL's On the Beat feature was an extensive article about Petersen and Taylor Vause, both of whom have Type 1 Diabetes as professional hockey players. Petersen was a driving force then in charitable events specifically around the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF).