The Stars have appointed Avalanche skills coach and former NHL forward Toby Petersen as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, according to a team release.
A ninth-round pick back in 1998, Petersen went on to spend parts of nine seasons in the NHL, including six with Dallas. He appeared in 398 regular-season games and 18 playoff games for the Penguins, Oilers, and Stars, scoring 34 goals and 82 points with a -40 rating. He played for the Texas Stars in the 2010-11, 2012-13, and 2013-14 seasons as his pro career wound down.
Petersen, 46, transitioned to coaching immediately after retiring as a player in 2014. He bounced around AHL benches, serving as an assistant for the Springfield Falcons (2014-15), Lake Erie/Cleveland Monsters (2015-17), and Rochester Americans (2017-20) before taking a few years away. He re-emerged as a skills coach for Colorado ahead of the 2023-24 season and had spent the last two years in Denver.
Petersen replaces Neil Graham, who recently earned a promotion to the NHL bench as an assistant. He’d been at the helm of the Texas program since a midseason promotion in 2019-20 and was twice named as a coach for the league’s All-Star Game (2023, 2024).