For Bylsma, there's a lot to appreciate too about this "ground-up opportunity" as he described in an exclusive early morning interview Tuesday before the official announcement. He was clearly a happy hockey coach poised to be leading a new team soon enough and equally glad about he and his wife, Mary Beth, moving west and closer to their son, Bryan, 23, who lives in Salt Lake City.
For another thing, Bylsma loves to develop young players into NHL regulars. He's done it before as an AHL coach in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and won a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh in 2009 with some of those AHL-turned-NHL players in his first half-year as the Penguins head coach.
He loves the concept of evolving into a head coach who includes his players in developing a game plan and system of play, which he has espoused at several levels of the sport, including the Olympics, and earned him the Adams Trophy for NHL's best coach in 2008.
"One reason why I wanted to become a coach was because [as a player] I didn't want to be just yelled and screamed at, then sent on a mission by the head coach [during his pro hockey playing days]," said Bylsma said during the media video conference. "I thought there was a lot more to helping the players and helping the team by getting more interaction with the players, getting their opinions, getting them bought-in. That's the coach I have become."
The 2022 version of Dan Bylsma as head coach will be in full swing come fall here in Seattle when the Firebirds hold camp at the Kraken Training Center while the team's new home, Acrisure Arena, is completed in Coachella Valley. The AHL affiliate will be based in the Seattle area until the Firebirds' new training center next to the arena is ready sometime between Oct. 15 and early November, plus play some early-season home games here in Seattle.
Bylsma will be part of the coaching staff for the upcoming Kraken Development Camp, which will run July 10 to 14 after the NHL Draft in Montreal July 7 and 8. More details about the development camp will be announced at a later date.
"Talking with Ron last season about the opportunity to coach in Charlotte [as assistant to Geordie Kinnear], it was in my mind but not sure it was in Ron's mind," said Bylsma when asked whether he aspired to coach the Firebirds as a natural progression in his Kraken player development role. "I felt a lot like the [Charlotte] players who wanted to prove they are worthy of playing in the NHL. I wanted to prove to Ron I was the guy to be head coach for Coachella Valley."
One more pillar of Bylsma's appreciation: He loves the idea of introducing professional hockey to a new market where desert outpaces ice. He's done that before too. He played two full and productive seasons (41 goals and 43 assists) as a right wing for the now-defunct International Hockey League Phoenix Roadrunners in the early 1990s.
"I played the most of my pro hockey in California [including 220 games with the NHL Los Angeles Kings and another 209 with then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim between 1994 and 2005]," said Bylsma during the early-morning phone call. "It's not the first time for me introducing the sport to new fans [he also mentioned hockey fans who spend winters in Coachella Valley], playing in front of fans enjoying hockey along with lots of sunshine."
In fact, it's not even the first time Bylsma will wait until December to play a first home game of the regular season due to arena construction.
"My first year as a pro I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the East Coast Hockey League," said Bylsma, laughing at the memory over the phone line. "They were re-doing the building they played in. So we had a 16,000-mile road trip by bus to start the season. I don't know how many road games we played, but it was a lot of miles on that bus."
