What did Dan Bylsma learn after being fired by the Sabres?

Dan Bylsma hasn’t done a good job coaching the Sabers in his second season here. At the end of the line. But I always thought he and general manager Tim Murray got a rocky deal when they were fired on April 20, 2017. The Sabres’ revolving door of coaches and general managers dates back to their firings, when Terry and Kim Pegula apparently gave in to Jack Eichel and other players and fired the coach due to the wishes of the general manager.

Murray, who refused to move when asked, was then asked to hit the road as well. The Pegulas, especially Kim, were fed up with Murray’s bombastic personality which entertained fans and the media but was difficult to deal with internally.

Fair enough. Yet the season was derailed by Eichel’s serious ankle injury suffered on the eve of the opener and was never able to get back on track and should have been treated as a fluke. Murray knew he had to improve the defense that summer and Bylsma felt the team’s struggles were one-offs and simply needed some adjustments. He had led the Sabers to a 27-point improvement in Eichel’s first year, from 54 to 81 points, and was hoping for 95 points in year two. When the team fell to 78, he was gone.

It took Bylsma seven years to get back to this point and probably a lot of soul-searching as well. He was named Seattle’s new head coach last week and one of the biggest reasons is what he’s still doing: coaching Coachella Valley into the thick of the AHL Calder Cup playoffs for the second year in a row. The Firebirds lost Game 7 of the finals in overtime last year to Hershey and this time have a 2-0 lead in the West final against Milwaukee.

Bylsma has had a winding path since Buffalo, first as an assistant in Detroit and then in the minors as an assistant in Charlotte before taking over the new Coachella Valley franchise in Southern California last season.

At his introductory press conference in Seattle, Bylsma said he’s had to adapt to the power of young hockey players these days. A top-down approach to coaching no longer works.

“It’s about relationships, being on the same page as the player and he’s part of that. They want to be part of the discussion,” Bylsma said. “…It is the responsibility of the coach to be able to build relationships, not only with each individual but also with the team as a whole. It is up to the coach to make this change in the way he coaches.

It was an interesting insight. In his closing press conference after the 2016-17 season, Murray was candid about wanting to see Bylsma out of his office and away from his computer a lot more than he had been. It became known as the general manager’s “have a cup of coffee” conversation, when he said the coach needed to do more of that with his players and grind them less with systems work or video study of the adversary.

When asked last week how he had changed the most since leaving Buffalo, Bylsma thanked Kraken general manager Ron Francis for giving him another chance in the NHL and said that he had to rediscover the joy of coaching.

“It’s probably the joy of what Ron mentioned witnessing over the last 2-3 years: connecting with the players, coaching the players, developing the players and the team,” Bylsma said. “That’s where I think I improved as a coach and where I wanted to improve as a coach.” It can be a little difficult to do that when you get to the National Hockey League. This time, that won’t be the case. That’s for sure.”

Bylsma was just too arrogant here internally for where the Sabers were in their development. He won the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh in 2009 after his mid-season promotion to the minors, became the fastest coach to 200 regular season wins in NHL history in 2013 and coached the he U.S. Olympic team in 2014. Bylsma didn’t forget how to coach in Buffalo, but it seemed like he lost his way.

He was always cordial, professional and informative with the media, but word was he was a little different behind closed locker room doors. We’ll see how it goes for him in Seattle, which struggled in Years 1 and 3 under Dave Hakstol but upset Colorado in a first-round playoff series in Year 2 before losing to Dallas in Game 7 of the second round.

Under Bylsma, the Kraken needs to generate more offense. Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers regressed this season from 57 points to 37 while the team lost 75 goals in slipping from fourth place with 289 goals in 2022-23 to 29th last season. In the standings, the Kraken goes from 100 points to 81.

Ownership is determined to make changes, especially since a potential NBA expansion to Seattle would further erode its fan base in Climate Pledge Arena. Bylsma will therefore be under pressure for a quick turnaround as he was in Buffalo. It will be interesting to see if he responds better to the challenge.

The annual NHL scouting center opens its work week Monday at KeyBank Center, with all 32 teams enjoying an arena venue to interview prospects for the NHL Draft taking place June 28-29 in Las Vegas.

Media availability opens Friday afternoon at LECOM Harborcenter, with presumptive No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini and other top prospects expected to headline the combine’s annual pre-practice press conference . Physical testing opens at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and is closed to the public.

With most general managers and many agents in town, the framework for exchanges and signings often begins to be built within the grouping. Conversations usually start to heat up during draft week.

The last team without a coach is San Jose, where general manager and ex-Sabre Mike Grier is still wondering who will get the chance to coach Celebrini if ​​he is chosen first. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and San Jose Hockey Now reported last week that the top names for the job are Ontario Reign coach and former Shark Marco Sturm, San Jose assistant Ryan Warsofsky and former coach of Detroit Jeff Blashill, now an assistant with Tampa Bay.

Since the Sabers hired Lindy Ruff on April 22, five other coaches have been hired: Travis Green (Ottawa), Craig Berube (Toronto), Sheldon Keefe (New Jersey), Scott Arniel (Winnipeg) and Bylsma (Seattle).

You wonder what’s going to happen in Columbus now that Don Waddell has left Carolina to become president and general manager of the Blue Jackets. Will he keep Pascal Vincent, who went 27-43-12 and felt like he was just a stopgap after Mike Babcock’s training camp debacle?

I heard the expected amount of criticism from fans over the news that the Sabers weren’t signing fourth-rounder Mats Lindgren in 2022. That’s really stupid. No team signs all of its draft picks and it’s a draft that also yielded Matt Savoie, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich, Viktor Neuchev and Vsevolod Komarov. Any team gets that upside potential from a single draft.

Compare that to some draft years under Tim Murray and Darcy Regier. Drafting has been a strength under Kevyn Adams’ front office. It’s professional scouting and NHL roster development that is a weakness.

Lindgren is being squeezed out by an NHL group that added Bowen Byram at the trade deadline and a group of prospects that includes Ryan Johnson, Nikita Novikov and Komarov. He’s a 6-foot, 184-pound kid with seven goals in 63 games with Red Deer last season. You don’t sign everyone.

Heading into Saturday’s Game 6 showdown in Sunrise, Fla., the Rangers had played Matt Rempe for just over 13 minutes combined in the final three games of the East Final against the Panthers – including just 2:43 into game five. the defending conference champions with just 11 forwards. Do they think Florida, of all teams, is intimidated? Foolishness.

It’s still hard to believe the abrupt turn the Western final took after Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game 4 and looked like it might take a 3-1 lead going home him for a decisive result. The Stars then gave up eight straight goals, lost two games and need to win Sunday night in Edmonton to stay alive or the Oilers will be in their first final since 2006 – and the first of the Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl era.

The folks in Utah say they only have four names left for the new NHL team, although it’s unclear if one will be chosen for next season or if we’ll just go with “Utah Hockey Club” for 2024-2025. Owner Ryan Smith hinted that two of the choices were the Yeti and the Mammoth. Sign me up for Team Yeti. An abominable snowman should be a hockey team’s mascot.