There’s precious little in hockey that Coachella Valley Firebirds coach Derek Laxdal hasn’t seen or done himself.
Laxdal starred in junior hockey before advancing to several AHL seasons, several more in Europe, and 67 NHL games with the Maple Leafs and Islanders. As a coach, he’s headed teams in junior, the ECHL and AHL, and spent three seasons as an assistant coach for the Dallas Stars.
All this makes Laxdal exceptionally qualified to shepherd Seattle Kraken prospects, no matter the stage of their hockey journey. On the eve of the main Kraken training camp, here’s what he’s sharing with his young charges, some of whom will soon follow him back to the desert for the Firebirds’ 2025-26 season.
‘Effort, Passion, Compete’
“For the players that are first, second, third year pros, this is an opportunity to show yourself and get into an exhibition game and possibly get to try and make the hockey club. Give it 100%, make an impression, be in the conversation for maybe some exhibition games.
“One thing we’ve talked about is just, you know, we’re not going to overload you with systems. We want to see what the players can do naturally, see their hockey sense, see the effort, see the passion, see the compete.
“For the kids that are going back to junior, we talked about this being an opportunity to kick-start your year for when you go home. If you end up coming down to the American Hockey League with us at CV, you want to be in the conversation of being a call-up in every situation based on your play at training camp. Leave a great impression on the new coaching staff and then just take it day by day from there.”
Firebirds Mimic Kraken Systems
“The biggest thing from training camp and coming up from CV is when they come up, they don’t have to worry about changing the system (they play). A couple tweaks here and there, but if we can get these players on the same page of the the foundation details that we want as an organization, it makes it a lot easier.
“We looked at our (Firebirds) roster the other day. I think we only have a couple really legit rookies. The back end is going to be the key. You’ve got (Kaden) Hammell, you’ve got (Lukas) Dragicevic, you’ve got (Tyson) Jugnauth. It’s definitely exciting for me and my coaching staff to be able to work with these players.
“The American Hockey League is a teaching ground. And our goal is to develop the next Kraken hockey players. That’s what it’s all about. There’s going to be some growing pains with our group. That’s part of hockey. But from the start of the season to the end of the season they’re going to be much better players. A great example is Jani Nyman. You look at him from last year to this year and training camp. He carries himself as a pro, he looks like a pro.”
Saturday’s 5-3 ‘Prospect Showcase’ Victory
“I thought we were trying to be a little bit too cute, a little bit too perimeter through the first two periods. We talked in the second, third period about how you have to play a certain way to get rewarded in this game. Give our kids a lot of credit. We got to 3-1 and they showed that resiliency of three (goals) in the third (plus an empty-netter).
“When you lose, it’s all coaching. When you win, it’s all players (said while smiling). Once we kind of got down to the style we wanted to play, the guys got rewarded in the third period.”
Following the Kraken prospects’ 3-2 loss to their Vancouver counterparts on Sunday, I asked Laxdal what the coaching staff would take away from the pair of games.
“These games are great opportunities for our scouts and our staff to see the players in the game environment. It’s a chance for these kids to get in game mode moving forward into training camp, the main camp. Which is what you want to do. You want the kids feeling good about their game.
“We asked the kids to shoot more (on Sunday), because early in the season, it tends to be a lot of perimeter hockey, a lot of extra passing. We just talked about trying to create some more chaos in the third period and I thought the kids did a good job of that.”