The American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds head coach vacancy has been filled by one of Stonewall’s own.
Derek Laxdal, 58, was named the second head coach in franchise history last week and will take over behind the bench for the Seattle Kraken AHL affiliate.
Laxdal is the reigning Ontario Hockey League Coach of the Year. He spent the past two seasons with the Oshawa Generals, where he coached them to the Bobby Orr Trophy in 2023-24 as Eastern Conference champions.
This is Laxdal’s second head coaching job in the AHL. He spent six seasons from 2014 to 2020 as the head coach of the Texas Stars, making one appearance in the Calder Cup Finals in 2017-18 before joining the Dallas Stars in 2019-20 as an assistant coach.
Now he heads southwest, this time to sunny Palm Desert, CA.
“From what I understand it’s a beautiful place and we’re excited to get down there,” said Laxdal.
Laxdal joins a Firebirds squad that is entering their third season in the AHL after the league expanded to Coachella Valley for the 2022-23 season.
The Firebirds have made the Calder Cup finals in both seasons of existence, losing to the Hershey Bears on both occasions under now former head coach Dan Bylsma who is joining the Seattle Kraken as their head coach.
With the Firebirds coming off back-to-back finals appearances, Laxdal knows there will be an added bit of pressure to succeed.
He plans to approach the job the same way he did with previous teams.
“It’s a new market that’s kind of been spoiled a bit,” said Laxdal. “Obviously when they first came into the league two years ago, they didn’t have any draft picks so they had to go sign a boat load of players and ended up going to the finals, even last year they got a bit younger and still got there. That’s the AHL, if you can build a great veteran group and leadership group, that’s only going to help those young kids take the next step. They’ve done a great job with that model and we want to continue that same success.”
Laxdal is excited for the opportunity to coach a Firebirds team that will likely ice one of the younger rosters in the AHL once again.
He highlighted Kraken draft picks David Goyette and Ty Nelson, who are set to join the team full time this season as players he is already familiar with from being on opposing teams this season in the OHL.
Goyette was the OHL’s leading scorer in 2023-24 while Nelson was a defenceman on Canada’s National Team at the 2024 World Junior Championship.
The roster could also include some of the Firebirds top forwards from last season such as 2023-24 Firebirds point leader Kole Lind and 2022 fourth overall pick Shane Wright if they don’t crack Seattle’s NHL roster.
“The one thing Seattle has now obviously being in the NHL for three years now is their draft picks are starting to come through the system now so we will definitely be a younger team next year,” said Laxdal. “We’re going to have to work on the skill development with the players, trying to find that development model of spitting out Seattle Kraken for the NHL.”
Laxdal will be joined on the bench by former NHLer Stu Bickel who has been an assistant coach with the Firebirds in both seasons of their existence.
The other assistant coach, Jessica Campbell, is not returning as she is joining the Kraken’s NHL staff as an assistant coach in 2024-25. Campbell is the first woman ever to hold a coaching role in the NHL.
Laxdal will make his first visit to Palm Desert later in July where he will address local media for the first-time in person.
Firebirds training camp is set to begin in early October with the 72-game regular season beginning later in the month.
The Firebirds compete in the AHL’s Pacific Division and play home games out of Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA.
