What To Know: The Kraken’s second head coach has been part of the Kraken organization since its inaugural season, joining as assistant coach of AHL Charlotte when Seattle and Florida shared a split squad. When the Coachella Valley Firebirds started AHL play in 2022-23, Bylsma, impressing Francis as an evaluator and relationship-builder, was the natural choice to become a head coach. Led CVF to the Western Conference championship and within one Game 7 overtime goal of winning the AHL’s Calder Cup. In season two, Bylsma continued rousing success with second lofty regular season winning percentage of exactly .715. Debuted as NHL head coach midseason in 2009, leading Pittsburgh to win that spring’s Stanley Cup against defending champ Detroit. Bylsma’s Pittsburgh teams made the playoffs in each of his six seasons.

Fun Facts: Fastest NHL head coach to reach 200 regular season wins. Played 429 NHL games for LA and Anaheim (nearly 50-50 with 220 for Kings and 209 for Ducks), one of 34 NHLers to play for both southern California teams.

What To Know: In his second season with Seattle, he was widely praised for his candor, humor and deep experience as an NHL player/coach. Transformed Kraken’s penalty-kill performance year-over-year. Lowry was interim head coach for the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22, taking over for Paul Maurice in mid-December.  

After a long NHL playing career (1,084 regular season games, 111 playoff appearances), he started his coaching career with Western Hockey League Calgary Hitmen as an assistant coach in 2005-06. Spliced NHL assistant jobs with Calgary (three seasons, 2009-12), Los Angeles (two seasons, 2017-19) and Winnipeg (two seasons, 2020-22) with seven WHL head coaching seasons in Calgary, Victoria and Brandon, posting 61.2 WHL win percentage. 
 
Fun Facts: Lowry shares a common event with many Kraken players. Selected by Florida in the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft. Florida was 33-34-17 in its inaugural season, but the highlight was the Panthers making a run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final. Lowry led Florida with ten goals and seven assists during the playoffs, earning a local nickname as “Mr. Playoff.” 
 
His son, Adam, an NHLer of 600-plus regular season games and another 44 in postseason play, was recently named Winnipeg captain.