Bylsma was the coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the Penguins’ AHL affiliate, when he replaced Michel Therrien in Pittsburgh on February 15, 2009; at 38, he was the youngest coach in the NHL at the time. The Penguins finished the 2008-09 season with an 18-3-4 record and defeated the Detroit Red Wings in seven games to win the Cup.
Two seasons later, he won the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year when the Penguins went 49-25-8 despite losing 350 games to injury and absence of forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the last 35 games of the regular season. .
He coached the Sabers for two seasons (2015-2017), missing the playoffs each season.
After his time in Buffalo, Bylsma served as an assistant coach for three seasons with the Detroit Red Wings (2018-21), then was hired by Seattle as an assistant with Charlotte of the AHL in 2021-22, while he was an affiliate to the Kraken. and the Florida Panthers.
Bylsma confirmed that when he accepted the job with Charlotte, he hoped it would lead to a coaching position at Coachella Valley.
“You might wonder why, perhaps, my path led me to Charlotte,” Bylsma said. “But really, it was…I was grateful to Ron at the time for giving me the opportunity to coach again. I had taken a few years off from being a head coach, and I kind of really decided that I wanted to try again to be a head coach and that’s really what brought me to Charlotte I had my eye on CV, I will say that. .
Bylsma said Jessica Campbell, her assistant coach in the AHL, talked about joining her team in Seattle. If she did, she would be the first woman to become an assistant coach in the NHL.
“The (Kraken) coaching staff, Jay Leach and (Dave Lowry), are people I would like to talk to in the future,” Bylsma said. “And the potential to bring someone else into the organization as well to complement the players, to complement me as a coach, and Jessica has been a part of that conversation, (Coachella Valley assistant) Stu Bickel has been part of that conversation. They’ve done it over the last few years developing players there, Tye Kartye and Ryker Evans are proof of that, and so they’re part of the conversation about the future with the staff here. »
Francis said he and Bylsma would discuss the rest of the coaching staff, as well as replacing Bylsma with the AHL team, at a later date.
“Dan and I have had conversations about our current staff and who might be available there,” Francis said. “I haven’t had any conversations with Jessica about it at this point. I think the work she’s done, though… the reason we hired her, we didn’t hire her because As she is a woman, we hired her because we thought she was a good coach. She has an interesting background not only in skating, but also in skill development, and it has been. a lot of what they were able to do with Coachella Valley.
Bylsma also coached the United States at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and was an assistant with the New York Islanders (2005-06) and in the AHL with Cincinnati (2004-05) before joining Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton as an assistant in 2006.
He played 429 NHL games as a forward for the Los Angeles Kings and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim after being a sixth-round pick (109th) of the Winnipeg Jets in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. He earned the nickname “Disco Dan” while playing for Phoenix in the International Hockey League from 1994 to 1996.
The San Jose Sharks are the only team without a coach. Since the end of the regular season, the Sabers hired Lindy Ruff on April 22, Travis Green joined the Ottawa Senators on May 7, the Toronto Maple Leafs named Craig Berube to the position on May 17, Sheldon Keefe was hired by the New Jersey Devils on May 23. and Scott Arniel became coach of the Winnipeg Jets the next day.
NHL.com freelance correspondent Darren Brown contributed to this report.
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