The Coachella Valley Firebirds say it before every season, but it’s not always realistic. They say that the goal is to win a Calder Cup.
They nearly did that in Years 1 and 2, reaching the Calder Cup Finals. Then, in Year 3, the goal was the same but the team wasn’t, and the Firebirds lost in the second round of the playoffs.
Last season, in Year 4, Coachella Valley had the youngest team in the league but still made it to the Pacific Division finals.
This year? That same group is back, nearly every single player, and the goal — once again — is the same. But the expectation is once again realistic. The Coachella Valley Firebirds are all-in to win a Calder Cup in 2027.
“We want to run it back, but we want to go even further this year,” defenseman
Ty Nelson said.
The Firebirds bring back 12 of their top 13 scorers from a year ago, with forward Cooper Marody being the only one not brought back this season. The team returns 86% of its scoring from the 2025-26 regular season and 94% of its scoring from the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Coachella Valley also returns its entire defensive core, minus Ville Ottavainen, who will start the season with the Kraken.
Both goalies also return, in Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman. Kokko is the top goalie prospect in the Kraken organization, but Ostman recorded even better numbers in the net during the last regular season.
“It’s exciting,” Firebirds head coach Derek Laxdal said. “We talked about last year being the youngest team in the league. This year, we’re not. We’re going to be a year older and we’ve got a great group of guys coming back.”
Among that group is Nelson, all-rookie performer Tyson Jugnauth and veteran Gustav Olofsson leading the defensive core. Then there’s leading scorer Logan Morrison, captain John Hayden, and prospects like Jagger Firkus, Jani Nyman, Oscar Molgaard and, eventually, star prospect Jake O’Brien, the eighth overall pick in last year’s NHL entry draft.
Last year ended after Coachella Valley beat both Bakersfield and Ontario in winner-take-all games, with forward J.R. Avon, who also returns, scoring the series-clinching goal in Game 5 in Ontario. The Firebirds then lost to the Colorado Eagles, the oldest team in the league last season.
General manager Troy Bodie said over the summer that the Firebirds liked what they saw from last year’s group so much that they wanted to “run it back.” That’s how excited the team is about this year’s group.
Hayden, Olofsson, Nyman, Morrison and forward Lleyton Roed are the only players still on the team from the last time the Firebirds reached the Calder Cup finals. But there’s a belief inside Acrisure Arena that this year’s group could do what previous iterations of the Firebirds couldn’t do.
“I think last year we took a step forward,” Firkus said, “so we’re trying to take another step forward this year.”
Andrew John covers the Coachella Valley Firebirds for The Desert Sun. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Great expectations: Firebirds have the roster to win a Calder Cup
