Kraken Add Bylsma as AHL Charlotte Assistant Coach

In recent weeks, the Kraken hockey operations staff has been acquiring players by drafts and free agency to establish formidable depth at the forward, defenseman and goalie positions.
On Tuesday, the team significantly fortified its coaching ranks, announcing Dan Bylsma as an assistant coach for the American Hockey League's Charlotte Checkers, which will be a shared player development affiliate with the Florida Panthers. He will work with Charlotte head coach Geordie Kinnear.

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. Two seasons later, Bylsma won the Jack Adams NHL coach-of-the-year award.
"Dan joins our organization with an impressive resume and his experience speaks for itself," said Ron Francis, Kraken GM. "He has a proven track record and we look forward to him coaching our prospects in Charlotte alongside Geordie Kinnear."
After six years in Pittsburgh, Bylsma served as the Buffalo Sabres head coach for two seasons. Most recently, he was an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings for the last three NHL seasons.
Bylsma, 50, played 429 NHL games for the Los Angeles and Anaheim over nine seasons. He served as an ECHL Cincinnati assistant in 2004-05 and an NHL assistant with the New York Islanders during the 2005-06 season.
In 2006, Bylsma joined the Penguins organization as an assistant AHL coach for Wilkes-Barre (PA). As hockey fate would have it, that season's Wilkes-Barre squad was a split roster between Pittsburgh and Edmonton Oilers prospects. Bylsma knows the challenge of blending two sets of players from NHL teams.
"It was a good situation," said Bylsma by phone Monday evening. "We melded together as a group and helped developed good NHL players for both franchises."
Bylsma expressed excitement about "getting in on the ground floor" with the Kraken to join in "the critical job of the American Hockey League team" developing the organization's pool of players who can contribute at the NHL level. Preferably sooner than later.
"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 rosters runs 30, 32, 34 players deep. Seattle fans are going to count good number of players wearing a Charlotte jersey to start the season that they will be cheering for in NHL games later in the year."
While all players want to make the NHL roster coming out of training camps, Bylsma and other knowledgeable player development coaches and executives espouse the value of getting the opportunity to play plentiful minutes (15 to 20 minutes) in the AHL rather than, say, eight to 10 minutes of average ice time during an NHL game.
"Going back to my past experience as a player, we all 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.
"Virtually everybody-there are exceptions such as Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid-has played the NHL," said Bylsma.
Bylsma offered the example Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who retired after the 2018-19 season (Bylsma's first with the Red Wings). Drafted in 2000, Kronwall played three more years in his homeland's Swedish pro league, then played a 100-plus games with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins over two seasons, shuttling between AHL and NHL before completing his career with 13 seasons as a fixture on the Detroit blue line.
In fact, nearly 90 percent of today's NHL players have logged time in the AHL and more than 100 Hockey Hall of Famers "played and improved" in the top professional development league.
Along with his impressive coaching resume, Bylsma resoundingly understands the pro player's journey to the NHL. He played 95 AHL games with the Rochester Americans, Albany River Rats, Moncton Hawks, Lowell Lock Monsters and the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, plus 85 games in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Greensboro Monarchs. He spent five seasons in the now defunct International Hockey League (IHL) with the Long Beach Ice Dogs and the Phoenix Roadrunners playing 231 games.
Bylsma and Charlotte head coach Kinnear know each other from long-ago hockey development summer programs as players and even suited up together as AHL teammates with the Albany River Rats for three games in the early 2000s.
Bylsma is looking forward to reuniting with his "hockey friend" and admitted to a rare act of spontaneity amid his excitement about joining the Kraken organization.
"I never do this," said Bylsma, laughing. "I already went online and bought a Kraken hat. I wanted to add it to my collection."