Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
“Prove us wrong.”
NHL teams often give their young players that message near the end of training camp, when it’s time to get those prospects further AHL experience.
Three Coachella Valley Firebirds prospects put those words into action as the AHL opened up its 91st season this past weekend.
Start with forward Jani Nyman, who already has five goals through his first two games. Nyman was selected as the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week after a dominant performance in a home-and-home series with the Ontario Reign. His two-goal night, along with an assist, started his season last Friday night in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Reign. Two power-play goals and an empty-netter gave him his first AHL hat trick in the return match at Toyota Arena a night later in a 6-2 victory. Jagger Firkus supplied two goals and a pair of assists while defenseman Tyson Jugnauth served up four assists in Saturday’s win, giving them both six points on the weekend also.
After meeting the San Diego Gulls on Friday night at home, the Firebirds will get another look at the Reign in a matinee match-up Sunday at Acrisure Arena.
Jason Botterill took over as Seattle’s executive vice-president and general manager in April 2025, and Coachella Valley is a crucial part of his mandate. Botterill had management roles with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, two organizations that have long relied heavily on AHL development. So while Nyman played 28 games for the Kraken last season, they opted to send him to Coachella Valley for further development this fall.
The Kraken are taking that same patient approach with most of their other prospects as well. Jugnauth’s 45-point effort last season helped him to earn a spot on the AHL All-Rookie Team; a 2022 fourth-round pick who had to play his overage year in the Western Hockey League in 2024-25, the 22-year-old Jugnauth has made himself a top prospect in the Seattle system. And for Firkus, who went to Seattle in the 35th spot of that same 2022 class, he continues to push toward a full-time role. Kraken management knew that Firkus could play, and he closed out his Western Hockey League career in 2023-24 with a 61-goal season. Firkus and Jugnauth both represented the Firebirds at last February’s AHL All-Star Classic, and Firkus finished with 56 points, second behind Logan Morrison on the Coachella Valley roster.
So this is a prospect-heavy Coachella Valley roster. And youthful. There’s the Nikke Kokko–Victor Östman goaltending tandem. The blue line features Alexis Bernier, Lukas Dragicevic and Ty Nelson among its promising talents. Up front, Eduard Šalé is a 2023 first-round pick going into third AHL season. Oscar Fisker Mølgaard went in the second round in 2023. Julius Miettinen and Nathan Villeneuve, each taken in the second round in 2024, are starting their pro careers with the Firebirds. Jake O’Brien, the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, got a postseason look with the Firebirds last spring.
Seattle faces pressure to contend in the Western Conference this season. Since entering the NHL as an expansion team for the 2021-22 season, the Kraken have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in four of their first five campaigns, and Lane Lambert is their third head coach.
But the Kraken are also sticking with an emphasis on stocking up on draft choices and developing those picks with the Firebirds. Defenseman Ville Ottavainen put in three seasons with the Firebirds before winning a spot on the Seattle roster out of training camp. Joey Daccord took the Firebirds to overtime of Game 7 in the 2023 Calder Cup Finals and has gone on to become Seattle’s number-one in net. Defenseman Ryker Evans came through Coachella Valley as a homegrown pick while Cale Fleury’s career got a rebirth at the AHL level after coming to the Seattle organization. Forwards Ryan Winterton and Shane Wright are two more Seattle development successes.
“We now have three assistant coaches on our staff (Pascal Vincent, Chris Taylor and Aaron Schneekloth) who were all AHL head coaches,” Botterill said on a recent Kraken Hockey Network broadcast. “They have a history of focusing on development, and it shows every day in practice.”
On the American Hockey League beat for more than two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2015-16.
