The Seattle Kraken plan to officially unveil Dan Bylsma as the second head coach in franchise history at a 10:30am PT press conference Tuesday.
Bylsma, who currently serves as the team’s head coach for their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, will take over for the recently departed Dave Hakstol behind the bench in 2024-25. A former Jack Adams award winner, Bylsma last coached at the NHL level for the Buffalo Sabres back in 2016-17.
After joining the Penguins mid-season in 2008-09, Bylsma would help the franchise win the Stanley Cup later that spring over the Detroit Red Wings. The 53 year old would guide the team to the postseason in each of the next 5 seasons, before eventually being let go in 2014.
Sporting a career record of 320-190-55 at the NHL level, Bylsma has both the experience and the hardware to support his bid to return to the bench for the first time in 7 years. Under his tutelage, Coachella Valley won the Pacific Division this season and are currently in the Western Conference finals of the Calder Cup playoffs at the moment.
After reaching the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last year, Seattle failed to qualify for the postseason in 2023-24. That, coupled with rumours of a growing disconnect between the players and Hakstol behind closed doors, led to franchise dismissing the only head coach it’s ever had several weeks ago.
With Bylsma set to be promoted, an interesting name to keep a eye on for the Firebirds coaching position is Jessica Campbell. The longtime Bylsma protege is highly regarded in NHL circles, and could become the league’s first female head coach in AHL history should she be chosen for the position.
The Firebirds kick off Game 1 vs. the Milwaukee Admirals on Wednesday, May 29th at 7pm PT.
Photo: Michael Miller. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.