"That's me. That's who I am.

"Born in Three Hills, raised in Killam,'' is how Bill Peters describes his upbringing.

He's as unabashedly, quintessentially Alberta as an Ian Tyson tune, a view of Moraine Lake at twilight, a particularly rank bull on $100,000 Stampede Showdown Sunday or the spiralling Hoodoos corkscrewing out of the Drumheller Valley floor.

"Both small towns, right? Real small towns. In both places the values, the quality of the people, are right off the charts.

"My grandfather (Dunc) was still alive back in the day, a quality man, and he taught me the difference between a want and a need. That's something's that's stayed with me. My dad was with gramps on the farm and then got into the oil business.

"He's a hard-working guy.

"So I like to think I got my work ethic from my dad but my value, my simplicity, from gramps."

Peters is proud of where he's from and how it shaped him.

"I'm an Alberta boy," he said. "It's God's Country. It's beautiful. That bright blue sky … it's different. A different colour. You look out in southern Alberta, you see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and it's breathtaking. Walk outside and there's some of the best country in the world."

Opting out of his contract after four seasons as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, Peters has made the decision to come home, in a sense.

"My mom and dad, a sister, two nieces, brother-in-law and sister-in-law all in Red Deer, right up Highway No. 2,'' he tells you.

"Being home is important. Of course. A great bonus for me. But you make a decision like this one based primarily on opportunity. Ownership group very strong. Relationship with the general manager, who I have a lot of respect for, along with everyone else in hockey. And I believe in what they're trying to accomplish.

"You look at the year Smitty (Mike Smith) was having prior to the injury, what Gaudreau's capable of. Monahan's an established player in the league. So is T.J. Brodie. The pair of Giordano and Hamilton was outstanding. Hamonic will be settled in and better in Year 2 after the move from the Islanders.

"There's just lots of quality players and lots of quality depth up and down the lineup, in my opinion."

The provincial tie runs through the Bill Peters hockey story, too. He played for both the University of Augustana College in Camrose and the Red Deer College Kings and coached the University of Lethbridge.

Being a proud Alberta boy, when it came to affiliation, growing up, did Peters' younger self opt for the Oilers or the Flames?

"Gotta be honest with you, I was an Islander fan as a kid,'' he confesses. "Look at my birth certificate and I liked the Islanders, I liked the Yankees and I liked the Steelers.

"Is that being a frontrunner or not?

"The Islanders, at that time, had all those Western Canadian guys … Gillies, Trottier, Bobby Bourne, those types of guys.

"And, let's face it, they were always taking deep runs."

The international game has played a major part in Peters' professional resume.

Two years ago, as head coach, he teamed with Flames' GM Brad Treliving to win a gold medal for Canada and the year before, as an assistant, watched goalie Mike Smith engineer another.

"In Prague, yeah,'' recalls Peters, asked specifically about Smith. "We had a very good team. There's no trapezoid over there, so you can imagine the affect Smitty had. I thought he was outstanding A) stopping the puck, giving us a chance to win; and B) moving the puck, taking some heat off the D.

"And off-the-charts competitive. I love that about him, about all players like him."

On Wednesday, the 53-year-old Peters flies to Latvia to begin Canadian preparations for the 2018 Worlds to be jointly held by Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark from May 4-20.

After that, the proud Alberta boy comes home to begin the quest of re-establishing the Flames as a playoff presence.

"The fan base in Calgary,'' he says, "is obviously very passionate. Very knowledgable. But I'm not going to throw shade on anything in Carolina.

"You use the term 'traditional' hockey market. Well, I'm going to say Carolina's now a traditional hockey market, the fans are great, but we both know there's a difference.

"Know what I like about the Original Six markets and the Canadian markets? Whenever there's a hockey game, there's a buzz. It's always Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada. It's special.

"That's what we live for. That holds players, coaches and administrators accountable.

"At the end of the day, we all want the same outcome.

"And when you're in a hockey-mad environment, I think it gives everybody a bit of extra juice.

"It's the game. It's a big part of us. A part of who we are.

"We're hard-wired that way."