Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Win or lose, tonight is the end of the era of Dan Bylsma.
The new Seattle Kraken coach will stand behind the home bench at Acrisure Arena for the last time tonight when his Coachella Valley Firebirds host Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals (9 ET/6 PT, AHLTV, NHL Network).
Yesterday was the second year that Bylsma was hired as the first coach in the history of the Firebirds. A little over three weeks ago, on May 28, he was named the second head coach in Kraken history.
Bylsma's career has seen him hit all kinds of markers for success. As an assistant, he helped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins reach the Calder Cup Finals in 2008. He won a Stanley Cup as Pittsburgh's head coach months after being promoted from Wilkes-Barre midway through the 2008-09 season. In 2011, he won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach. He became the fastest NHL coach to reach 200 wins. He led the US men's team to the 2014 Olympics, and won two bronze medals for his country at the IIHF World Championship.
But after leaving Pittsburgh, he only lasted two years as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs both times. He went to Detroit, where he was an assistant coach for the Red Wings for three seasons when that team did not make the postseason. At the end of the 2020-21 season, Bylsma needed a change, so he returned to the AHL. It was a regular place, a league where he played 429 games over 12 years with six teams before starting his coaching career with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in 2004.
The Kraken, which began playing in 2021-22 as an NHL expansion team, had the role of Bylsma. They would share the Charlotte Checkers season with the Florida Panthers while construction on Acrisure Arena was completed. So Bylsma went to Charlotte to work as an assistant coach. After those elite NHL years, he would return to the pinnacle of hockey's top developmental league.
“There was humility, for sure,” Bylsma said last year. He openly admits that he needed to rediscover his passion for coaching when he returned to the AHL.
“I thanked the guys in Charlotte,” said Bylsma, “and I will thank these guys because they reminded me what coaching is all about.”
Bylsma was appointed to lead the Firebirds, and the first season in the Coachella Valley exceeded any expectations. After starting the season by spending two months on the road awaiting the completion of Acrisure Arena, the Firebirds finished second in the AHL standings with a 48-17-5-2 record (103 points) before advancing to five rounds of Calder Cup play earlier. eventually falling to Hershey in Game 7 of the Finals.
In the second year, the Firebirds again finished second in the regular season with 103 points, and sit two wins away from the championship that Bylsma so desperately wants.
Why did Bylsma click so well with the players in his return to the AHL after reaching the pinnacle of his coaching career?
Protector of the Firebirds Connor Carrick spent the 2021-22 season in Charlotte as one of the Checkers' contracted players in Seattle. He made his way to Providence last season before returning to the Kraken organization last summer.
“He's an amazing coach,” Carrick said, “and Seattle's got a great recruit. He cares about every player. He understands the role that each player brings. He gave positive feedback, encouraging the players to express themselves. He really encourages his players to want to be the best.”
A rookie forward Shane Wright expected to be a key piece of Seattle's future, possibly as soon as next season. He and Bylsma worked hard to prepare him for a full-time NHL career.
“He knows how to prepare us so we can always be prepared for everything,” said Wright. “He knows what to say at the right time. He also knows when to keep it light. I definitely took a lot of things that he passed on to me.”
For all his success at the NHL level and developing talent in the AHL, one thing remains on Bylsma's to-do list, and it's important to him. There is still important unfinished business for him and the Firebirds.
“I think we all have goals in our careers,” Bylsma said after Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, “and I haven't won the Calder Trophy. I really want to win the Calder Cup.”
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has covered the American Hockey League for nearly two decades at outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM ! Sports, and most recently was the host of The Hockey News On The 'A' podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL's James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league's top scorer in 2016.
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