From the Flint Firebirds to the NHL — A Brief History
The Firebirds are auctioning off 2017-18 White Jerseys and Navy Blue Jerseys until Friday, March 23rd at 12 p.m. You can bid today by downloading the Dash App.
There's a chance you might be getting a jersey from a future NHL star. 120 of the organization’s alums have been drafted in the NHL including 17 first round picks. Of the 120 drafted alums, 14 former skaters from the Firebirds/Whalers’ organization played in the NHL in the 2017-18 season.
Since the Flint Firebirds’ inception three season ago in 2015, the club has had 13 drafted or NHL signed players on its roster consisting of Will Bitten (Montreal), Nick Caamano (Dallas), Connor Chatham (New Jersey), Fedor Gordeev (Toronto), Kyle Keyser (Boston Bruins), Nick Mattinen (Toronto), Brent Moran (Dallas), Alex Nedeljkovic (Carolina), Alex Peters (Dallas), Vili Saarijarvi (Detroit), Kole Sherwood (Columbus), Jalen Smereck (Arizona) and Josh Wesley (Carolina).
The highest alum to be drafted in the NHL is Bryan Berard who was picked with the first overall selection by the Ottawa Senators in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. The next highest alums to be drafted after Berard are Tyler Seguin (2nd overall in 2010 by Boston) and David Legwand (2nd overall in 1998 by Nashville).