Fired Up for Calder Cup

There are many reasons for Kraken fans to appreciate and take a rooting interest in the American Hockey League's Western Conference champions Coachella Valley advancing to the Calder Cup Final. The title begins with a pair of Firebirds home games Thursday and Saturday nights against the East champion Hershey Bears. Fans can watch the series (7 p.m. puck drop for Games 1 and 2) at 32 Bar and Grill at Kraken Community Iceplex or tune in to ROOT for full coverage. Here's a look at why to watch the Calder Cup Final:

Developing the Future, Planning for the Present

For one, Coachella Valley is the AHL affiliate for the Kraken. Each of the NHL's 32 teams, including the Washington Capitals doing the same with Hershey, have a developmental team for which they can add young players to gain valuable ice time facing stronger and older opponents at a pace of play closest to the NHL in the world. The AHL affiliate also stocks NHL-tested players who can serve as trusted reserves when inevitable injuries affect the depth of the NHL roster (and good thing Alaska Airlines has multiple direct flights from Palm Springs to Seattle daily).

"The AHL plays such a key role in the development of NHL players," said Ron Francis, Kraken GM. "It's vital to the long-term success of our organization."

Building a Winning Culture

Another big reason is because Francis and his hockey operations group, most especially Firebirds executive Troy Bodie, head coach Dan Bylsma, and assistant coaches Jessica Campbell and Stu Bickel, are intent on building a winning culture in the Southern California desert that aligns with the Kraken organization. Consider that intention more than a work in progress: Coachella Valley has already won four rounds of rugged AHL competition, including four victories in elimination games in which losing meant the end of the impressive playoff run.

Ron Francis' Master Plan in Action

The task was particularly challenging for Seattle as an expansion team because most draft choices in the team's first two draft classes (2021 and 2022) were not eligible to play at the pro level this season. The restriction that players must return to their major juniors teams if they don't make the Kraken 23-man active roster as teenagers coming out of training camp (or returned to those Canadian Hockey League teams once the young player has competed in nine or fewer NHL games) is due to a long-time agreement with the CHL, considered the top and deepest source of talent for the NHL Draft.

Francis used the NHL expansion draft to select a preferred handful of young players with NHL experience who could help the organization at both levels of pro play. Plus, Francis, Bodie, and the Seattle front office have signed players such as captain and AHL postseason leading scorer Max McCormick in the summer of 2021 and, this past summer, Swedish forward Jesper Froden (among goal-scoring leaders in the first half of the AHL regular season before being called up to the Kraken and now back with CVF for the postseason).

See Players Likely to Play for Kraken Sooner than Later

AHL rookie of the year Tye Kartye is another shining example of great work by Kraken/Firebirds hockey minds and another inviting reason to get behind the first-year Firebirds bid for the Calder Cup: He was signed as an undrafted free agent last March, improved geometrically during the inaugural season and, of course, scored his first NHL goal on his first NHL shot in his first NHL game when called up to fill in for 40-goal scorer Jared McCann. Kartye scored three postseason goals, sports an NHL-elite shot, and played a notably physical game in his first-ever NHL games.

Along with tuning in (viewing on AHLTV.com for a small charge is another option), Kraken fans can follow our "Firebirds Cup Run Blog" to scope young Coachella Valley players and seasoned AHL veterans who could very well be skating in Seattle jerseys in the 2023-24 NHL regular season. Defenseman Ryker Evans, selected 35th over in the 2021 NHL Draft, suited up and starred for the Firebirds this season because he was drafted as a 19-year-old. He was not picked in the 2020 draft and he is proving 31 other NHL franchises wrong with his AHL-elite play in all zones. He scored a pivotal goal in Monday's clinching Western Conference Final home win against Milwaukee and has three goals and 13 assists to date in this Cup run.

CVF coach Bylsma speaks highly about a pair of young undrafted free agents signed out of Finland's pro league, forward Ville Petman and defenseman Peetro Seppala, along with forward Luke Henman (first player signed to a pro contract by Seattle). One more player of high interest: 2022 first-rounder and No. 4 overall pick Shane Wright is playing regular minutes for CVF since finishing his major junior season and winning gold as captain of Team Canada and the 2023 World Juniors tournament this past winter.

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Take in Fast-Paced Games and Elite Coaching

Bylsma is familiar to hockey fans, most notable for leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to the 2009 Stanley Cup after taking over as head coach mid-season to finish the regular season with an 18-3-4 record. That Stanley Cup Final was an all-time classic between the Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. Two seasons later, Bylsma won the Jack Adams NHL coach-of-the-year award.

After six years in Pittsburgh, Bylsma served as the Buffalo Sabres head coach for two seasons. More recently, he was an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings for three NHL seasons before joining the Kraken player development group by serving as an assistant coach in Charlotte last season and now leading a squad with similar systems of play to that of Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. The synergy between the Firebirds and Kraken greatly helped the aforementioned Kartye to step right into a pivotal role in ousting defending champ Colorado in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Bylsma played 429 games in the NHL and knows the value of American Hockey League competition as both a developing forward coming out of NCAA Division I Bowling Green and later as a young AHL coach making an impression on NHL general managers. In the AHL, the concept is to give young pros more ice time and the opportunity to correct mistakes with less fear of dropping out of the lineup. Most GM and player development directors choose more AHL ice time (including power play and penalty kill) than a formidable prospect getting just eight to 10 minutes on an NHL fourth line and/or serving as a seventh defenseman.

More than 80 Percent of NHLers Played in the AHL

Teams still aim to win, said Bylsms, but there is a symbiotic commitment to "let players go out there and keep doing it." Getting the head-turning results with Coachella Valley is a major bonus. In any case, Bylsma said the AHL is an opportunity for another 700-plus players to keep their NHL dreams alive.

"Going back to my past experience as a player, it is easy to think there is ample opportunity for everyone to play [during an NHL game]," said Bylsma. "It's just not always the case. The younger player might not get the opportunity to fully develop. In the AHL, you get the opportunity to play and improve."

"We all look at NHL rosters and see the players listed [up to 23 on active rosters]," said Bylsma. "But during the course of a season, the typical NHL roster runs 30, 32, 34 players deep. Each year, Seattle fans are going to count on a good number of players wearing a Coachella Valley jersey to start the season [or this postseason] that they will be cheering for in NHL games later in the year."

According to the AHL, 590 players across the NHL's 32 opening-day active rosters logged games in the developmental league. That's 83 percent of all players getting NHL roster spots.

Kraken Players with Notable AHL Stats

Fans need not look far to see how the AHL can power-boost an NHL career. Standout defenseman Adam Larsson and 40-goal wing McCann both played a significant number of NHL games as teenagers before going back to the AHL for more ice time and development. Philip Grubauer manned 105 games in net for Hershey over three seasons.

Alternate captain and fan favorite Yanni Gourde was undrafted but leveraged his AHL body of work to win a roster spot with the Tampa Bay Lightning, nearly winning NHL Rookie of the Year honors and going on to win two back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Lightning. Gourde played in a Calder Cup final in 2017 while Kraken forward Morgan Geekie was a key player for AHL Charlotte's 2019 Cup championship.

It's June and We Get to Watch Meaningful Hockey

Impressively, 80 percent of the goals scored by that Charlotte team were players that Ron Francis drafted or otherwise acquired/signed in his previous role as GM of the Carolina Hurricanes. Francis' positive and franchise-building trend of stocking AHL squads to both develop and win continues to unfold Thursday night at Acrisure Arena. The Firebirds fans are without question aligning with the high-decibel noise generated by Kraken fans at Seattle home games. The homemade signs from Firebirds fans are fun to see and the unabashed love affair with goalie Joey Daccord (the "Joey! Joey!" chants start early) is equally a hockey joy. It's all worth checking out.

Be sure to follow the 2023 Calder Cup Final on our "Firebirds Cup Run Blog" on our app, website, and social media channels, along with bonus coverage on social media.