Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma talks about the team’s loss in Calder Cup finals
An emotional Dan Bylsma addresses loss in Calder Cup finals
The Seattle Kraken announced the Coachella Valley Firebirds new head coach on Friday and it is not a household name to desert hockey fans but soon will be.
The second coach in Firebirds history will be Derek Laxdal. The 58-year-old Laxdal has coached at the NHL and AHL level and is coming off a successful run in the Ontario Hockey League where he was named the OHL Coach of the Year last season after leading the Oshawa Generals to a 40-19-7 record and into a spot in the OHL Championship Series.
Laxdal, born in Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada, succeeds Dan Bylsma, who led the Firebirds to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals before being promoted to the head coach with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken in late May.
This will not be Laxdal’s first head-coaching stint in the AHL. He was the coach of the Texas Stars from 2014-20 where he amassed a 189-139-52 record and took the team to the Calder Cup Finals in 2018, losing in seven games to Toronto. After the 2020 season, he joined the Dallas Stars’ NHL staff as an assistant before being hired as head coach and general manager in Oshawa in 2022.
The fact that Laxdal has done the AHL-to-NHL development cycle before was a key factor in his hiring according to Troy Bodie, the Firebirds’ VP of hockey operations.
“He’s got NHL and AHL experience just like Dan did and we have a high standard here,” Bodie said. “And he’s developed players from the AHL in Texas and got them up to the NHL level and that stuff’s really important to us and a big part of what he brings.”
Bodie added that Laxdal is particularly noted for coaching the power play unit, which is something the team needed to replace when former assistant Jessica Campbell was announced as an assistant with the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday.
Bodie said the other Firebirds’ assistant coaches — Stu Bickel who primarily handles the defense and penalty kill, and Colin Zulianello the goaltending coach — will stay on and be with the Firebirds next year. Zulianello has worked with Laxdal before when both were with a team in Idaho.
Laxdal, who is currently on vacation with his family, was one of many applicants for the job Bodie said.
“The Coachella Valley is an attractive destination for coaches and players and there were a lot of people interested in the job,” Bodie said. “It was an extensive process and we landed on him as our guy and we’re excited…
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