Flint Firebirds The Flint Firebirds are a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League set to begin play for the 2015 – 16 season . Based in Flint , Michigan in the United States , the Firebirds will play their home games at the Perani Arena and Event Center . History . Coming to Flint . The Firebirds trace their roots back to the 1990 – 91 season , when the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors were added as an expansion team in the OHL . Since then the franchise has been the Detroit Junior Red Wings , the Detroit Whalers , and the Plymouth Whalers . On January 14 , 2015 , it was announced that longtime Whalers owner Peter Karmanos had sold the team to IMS USA , Inc . , with the intention to move the franchise to Flint and the Perani Arena . The purchase and relocation was approved by the OHL on February 2 , 2015 . 2015 - 16 Coaching / Ownership Issues . On November 8th , the owner of the Flint Firebirds fired the head coach , John Gruden after the team pulled out a come from behind overtime victory over the defending Memorial Cup champions earlier . According to published reports the issue was the amount of ice time that owner , Rolf Nilson ' s 17 year old son was receiving . Upon hearing of the removal of the coach the whole 24 members of the team quit , not wanting to play for anyone else but Coach Gruden . Among those quitting the team were the owner ' s son , Håkon Nilsen . The whole team went into the team ' s front office and threw their jerseys on the ground , quit the team and then walked out . OHL commissioner David Branch was scheduled to meet with the ownership of the franchise on Monday November 9th to try to salvage anything out of what is a very bad situation for all involved . After the meeting the owner issued a release through the OHL ' s website stating that he made " an irresponsible mistake " and the coaches were reinstated and meetings were held between the league commissioner , ownership , coaches and players . The Firebirds organization made news headlines again on February 17th when the owner fired Coach ( and now GM since January ) Gruden and assistant coach Dave Karpa and named director of operations Sergei Kharin interim head coach . The way the handling of the terminations was handled ( mainly involving communication to the players and the league ) has lead to the league looking into the terminations . Commissioner Branch was in contact with the team ' s captain , Alex Peters and was planning on meeting with the rest of the players and parents within a few days . At the time of the firings the team was in 9th place in the conference with a 11 - 31 - 6 record and lost 8 of their last ten games . The team was actually on a pace for a better record than in 2014 - 15 . The league made the following announcements after the initial phase of their investigation : The owner and his appointees on the management and coaching staff ( including interim coach Sergei Kharin ) . The team is to provide counseling services for the players and that the management team is to co - operate with the commissioner and the league for the rest of the investigation . The league and the commissioner have said they will take any appropriate actions to remedy the situation . On April 6 , 2016 the league annouced that owner Rolf Nilsen was suspended for five years and fined $ 250 , 000 as a result of an investigation conducted by the league . The report stated that Nilsen had violated an agreement he signed with the league on November 11 , 2015 . The team was also penalized with the forfeiture of the team ' s first round pick in the OHL Priority Selection ( the third pick overall in the draft ) . The release stated if Nilsen violates any of the terms of the order from the league he will be required to sell 100 % of his ownership interest in the Firebirds . Nilsen may file for re - instatement to participate in hockey operations after 3 years . The league further announced that Joe Birch who took over the hockey operations in February will continue in the position and additional staff ( head coach , GM , and other hockey operational staff ) would be named shortly . The team will continue to be under the stewardship , supervision and direction of the league commissioner . Team name . Although there was sentiment towards resurrecting the Flint Generals nickname which had been used by two past teams in the city , the OHL quickly nixed that idea because of the Oshawa Generals using that name . Likewise , a popular suggestion was the " Flint Tropics " , after the fictional American Basketball Association team of that name in the 2008 movie " Semi - Pro " . However , after various others voiced their displeasure at their team possibly being named after a comedy movie ' s protagonist team , and the chance of the novelty wearing off after a while , the name did not make the list of finalist choices . The nine finalist nicknames were Firebirds , Force , Fury , Nationals , Pride , Spark Plugs , Sparks , United , and Vikings . Finally , on March 16 , the Firebirds ' name , logo and colors were revealed . Notable players . First round NHL Entry Draft picks . " Players who were drafted in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft while playing for the Firebirds franchise . " Second round NHL Entry Draft picks . " Players who were drafted in the second round of the NHL Entry Draft while playing for the Firebirds franchise . " Franchise records . " A complete list of team records can be found here . " Season - by - season results . Regular season . Legend : OTL = Overtime loss , SOL = Shootout loss