The North American pro hockey world is shaping up to be a memorable one for recent expansion teams. The Coachella Valley Firebirds can win it all in their first season of existence.
Cameron Hughes celebrates a goal with teammates in Game 2 of the Calder Cup final.The Vegas Golden Knights are in the midst of their victory lap after winning the Stanley Cup in just their sixth season of operation.
Meanwhile, in the AHL, the Coachella Valley Firebirds are two wins away from saying 'hold our beer.'
The first-year franchise is currently tied 2-2 with their league's oldest franchise, the Hershey Bears, in the Calder Cup final. Game 5 goes Saturday in Hershey (7 p.m. ET), then the scene shifts back to Palm Desert for Game 6 on Monday and Game 7 if necessary (both 10 p.m. ET).
That means the 86-year-old Calder Cup will be handed out at brand-new Acrisure Arena, and there will be at least one more home game for the Firebirds, who have already set a new AHL playoff attendance record.
The Firebirds, of course, are the farm team for the Seattle Kraken.
In their second season, the Kraken quieted concerns that they couldn't have the same out-of-the-box success as Vegas with their 100-point season and two-round playoff run — including a cold-blooded Game 7 overtime ousting of the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
Down on the farm, they've been even more successful than Vegas, more quickly. And it hasn't been an easy path.
Vegas was already in its third year of operation by the time it acquired the AHL's San Antonio Rampage with the intention of moving the franchise closer to home.
The renamed Henderson Silver Knights debuted in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season at Orleans Arena, part of the Orleans Hotel and Casino complex just off the Las Vegas Strip. In 2022, they moved into their permanent home at the newly constructed Dollar Loan Center, which seats 5,500 and is located about 20 minutes away from T-Mobile Arena in nearby Henderson, Nev.
After Seattle was granted its expansion franchise, the game plan included an AHL affiliate nearly from the jump.
The ownership group got its go-ahead from the NHL in December 2018 and immediately got to work renovating Climate Pledge Arena, which had its grand reopening on Oct. 22, 2021.
While that project was in progress, plans were announced in 2019 for the acquisition of the AHL expansion franchise, which would set up shop in Palm Springs, Calif. Plans for the original location fell through, but a new, more central parcel of land was secured by the fall of 2020, with a targeted opening for the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
When the Kraken first hit the ice in the fall of 2021, they had a one-year affiliate deal with the AHL's Charlotte Checkers in place. The Checkers also took prospects from the Florida Panthers.
The Kraken crew included goaltender Joey Daccord, who got the lion's share of the ice time among Charlotte's eight stoppers that year, playing in 34 games and putting up a .925 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average. Other not-quite-ready-for-prime-time skaters like Alexander True, Kole Lind and Cale Fleury also spent most of their seasons in Charlotte, which finished first in the AHL's Atlantic Division and reached the third round of the playoffs.
The Kraken also set the stage for their first AHL coaching hire when they installed Dan Bylsma as an assistant to head coach Geordie Kinnear on the Checkers bench. He won the Stanley Cup as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 and also served as the coach of the Buffalo Sabres and an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings.
While they waited to move into their new, state-of-the-art digs, the Kraken organization unveiled the name and logo for the Coachella Valley Firebirds in November 2021.
In June 2022, Seattle GM Ron Francis announced Bylsma as the Firebirds' first-ever head coach. Just two weeks later, Bylsma served notice that he wasn't afraid to break new ground when he brought on Jessica Campbell as the AHL's first-ever female assistant coach, fresh off a stint as an assistant with Germany at the 2022 men's World Championship. In September, tough journeyman defenseman Stu Bickel rounded out Bylsma's coaching staff.
And as much as it's incredible that a first-year expansion team is sitting two wins away from a championship, there's more to this story.
The Firebirds' season began much the same as the Arizona Coyotes, as they waited for Mullett Arena to be completed. The Coachella Valley arena wasn't ready until a week before Christmas, so the Firebirds were vagabonds for the first two months of the season.
Nevertheless, they served notice immediately that they were a force to be reckoned with. As the Calgary Wranglers were looking to celebrate their new moniker and home at the Saddledome after a move north from Stockton, Calif., the Firebirds spoiled the party and flew out of Cowtown with a pair of wins.
Then, it was off to Seattle for four 'home' games that allowed them to introduce themselves to local fans of their parent club: two games at the Kraken Community Iceplex, the NHL practice rink, one at the home of the WHL's Everett Silvertips, Angel of the Winds Arena, and one at Climate Pledge Arena, which drew more than 8,700 fans.
They split the set and wrapped up October with a 4-2 record.
Then came the "Where are we today?" 16-game road trip, which lasted through Dec. 16 and zig-zagged all across the Pacific Division.
Abbotsford, Tucson, Colorado, Calgary, San Diego, Henderson, San Jose, Bakersfield, back to Tucson and finally back to San Diego, where they completed their odyssey with an 8-1 beatdown of the Gulls.
Two nights later, as owners of a stunningly solid 14-5-3-0 record, the Firebirds skated onto the ice in front of 10,087 brand-new fans in Palm Desert and delivered a 4-3 win over the Tucson Roadrunners in their home debut.
Cameron Hughes scored the first goal on Acrisure Arena ice on the power play at 8:49 of the first period. Tye Kartye potted the game-winner at 14:24 of the second, also with the man advantage. And Daccord stopped 21-of-24 for the win.
All told, the Firebirds went 6-1-0-0 through the rest of December and continued to roll through the second half of the season. A 4-2 loss to Bakersfield on the final day left them three points behind the Wranglers for second place in the Pacific Division — and the entire league.
In the playoffs, the Firebirds dispatched the Roadrunners and the Colorado Eagles before their best-of-five showdown against the Wranglers. There, Daccord outduelled goalie of the year Dustin Wolf in a triple-overtime thriller to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series, then prevailed again in sudden death in the deciding game.
After a 4-2 series win over the Milwaukee Admirals in the Western Conference final, it was on to the championship series.
Much like the Golden Knights, the Firebirds are building something special together, forging new paths and making the ice rink the hottest venue in town as the scorching summer solstice approaches.
Whether they finish the job or not, the Firebirds have already logged an unforgettable first flight while making themselves a red-hot ticket in the desert.