📝 by Patrick Williams
Dan Bylsma is the rare coach to have brought the Jack Adams Award with him back to the AHL.
The head coach of the expansion Coachella Valley Firebirds already had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup as well. That title came in 2009 with the Pittsburgh Penguins following a midseason promotion from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He earned the Jack Adams Award as the National Hockey League’s most outstanding coach two years later, and later led the United States men’s team at the 2014 Winter Olympics. That was followed by two seasons guiding the Buffalo Sabres and three more campaigns as a Detroit Red Wings assistant coach.
With that resume, the Seattle Kraken hired him before last season to join the Charlotte Checkers as an assistant coach, overseeing the expansion team’s prospects in a one-year shared affiliation with the Florida Panthers. Plenty of AHL coaches have gone on to win the Jack Adams Award, but before Bylsma, only one had ever come to the AHL with the NHL honor already to his name: Tom Watt won the award in 1981-82 with the Winnipeg Jets, and later headed up the St. John’s Maple Leafs for two seasons.
As a player, Bylsma played 429 games in the NHL during a 12-year career that included a run to the Calder Cup Finals with the Moncton Hawks in 1994; other AHL stops included Rochester, Albany, Springfield, Lowell and Cincinnati, where he began his coaching career after retiring in 2004.
Perhaps Bylsma, 52, can add a Calder Cup to that resume later this spring. With two weeks to go in the regular season, his Firebirds own the second-best record in the entire league at 45-14-4-2 (96 points), and are on pace to finish with the best mark ever by a first-year AHL club. They also have the AHL’s third-best road record (22-8-4-0), a remarkable feat considering they spent two months without a home until opening Acrisure Arena on Dec. 18.
Bylsma sat down with TheAHL.com earlier this season to share his thoughts on his time with the Firebirds and more:
ON TAKING THE FIREBIRDS THROUGH TWO MONTHS ON THE ROAD
“[Even during] the original move-in, we were in transition. We got into our dressing room, but it wasn’t until really the start of our home schedule December 18 that we really settled into the rink, into our facilities, into our locker room.”
ON BRINGING THE SPORT TO A MARKET WITH NO PRIOR PRO HOCKEY
“The community, the town, the people, and the fans had been eager to get pro hockey here in the desert. The guys are continually amazed by the atmosphere, the fans, and the support we have settling into our new home.”
ON WORKING WITH ASSISTANT COACHES JESSICA CAMPBELL AND STU BICKEL
“It’s old and young. I don’t fancy myself old. It’s been great having the youthful energy of the coaching staff. Jess, Stu, and Colin [Zulianello, the team’s goaltending coach] with the passion that they bring to the rink… They’ve got a ton of youthful energy.”
ON CAPTAIN MAX McCORMICK
“This is my second year with coaching and watching Max be a leader. Last year he was coming off a pretty serious injury and surgery in the summertime and was still rehabbing. Max has an extremely high compete level and an extremely high bringing-everything-to-the-rink [level].
“That’s how he leads every day. To see it be transferred to our other players is a true testament to his leadership and what he’s brought.”
ON TOP PROSPECT RYKER EVANS
“He’s talented, smooth-skating. The future is bright for Ryker. He’s every day learning what it takes to be a pro, the approach, the mental approach, the physical approach, and he’s showing it. It’s tough to come to a game and watch us play and not think that Ryker Evans is taking over the game with how he can play and how he can skate as a defenseman.”
ON HAVING HAD A CHANCE TO COACH ANDREW POTURALSKI
“It’s showing off to everybody that he’s been the leading point-getter in our league the last two years, and he’s still not done getting better. He’s still not done trying to work to get to where he wants to go in the National League.”
ON STANDOUT TWO-WAY FORWARD CAMERON HUGHES
“Hughes is a baller. He’s a gamer. He’s a guy who draws people into the fight with the play that he plays and the grit that he plays with.”
ON ESTABLISHING AN IDENTITY WITH AN EXPANSION TEAM
“I want our guys to think we’re a good team. I want our guys to compete like a good team and do it every time we touch the ice whether it’s practice or a game. The guys’ mindset is we’re just going to do it every chance we get. We want to be the hardest-competing team on the ice every chance we play. I love looking at our record. I love looking where we’re at, how many wins we have, but I’m more excited about the guys establishing that we’re going to be the hardest-working and the hardest-competing team every night that we get a chance.”
Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and is currently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
