New Seattle Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell speaks at the NHL Hockey Press Conference in Seattle on Wednesday. Campbell will become the first woman to work behind the bench for an NHL team after the team hired her as an assistant coach.
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SEATTLE — After her playing career ended, Jessica Campbell found a new passion in coaching.
At the time, she probably didn’t imagine that it would eventually lead to her making it to the NHL, let alone becoming the first woman to work on an NHL team’s bench.
“I probably naively had the courage to believe it was possible, even though I didn’t see it, but I believed I could do it,” Campbell said. “I think with that inner belief, whatever sports and life is Whatever you want, you can create whatever you believe in.”
Campbell was hired as an assistant coach by the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, becoming the first woman in NHL history to serve as a bench assistant or secondary coach.
She has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at the Coachella Valley’s Seattle AHL affiliate, working with Dan Bylsma, who was hired as the Kraken’s head coach in late May. There were immediate questions about whether Campbell would take this action.
In doing so, she will break another barrier for women in hockey. Emily Engel-Natzke was hired as a video coach by the Washington Capitals in 2022, making her the first woman in the league to serve as a full-time assistant.
Now, there will be a woman on the bench.
“Obviously, it’s an honor to be in this position and you speak first and be first, but that’s never really been my focus. I’m always on the job. On the impact. On the job this game and this The job has a lot of meaning, so I never take it for granted,” Campbell said.
Jessica Campbell, left, assistant coach for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, plays with the Seattle Kraken during the second period of an NHL preseason hockey game against the Calgary Flames on Sept. 25 in Seattle. The coaches work together behind the bench.
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“I think the biggest thing is that I’m constantly reminded that it brings a lot of meaning to the work, and I know that if the team is successful and my impact is good, then it might open doors for other people, maybe for other people. When people open their eyes, they may have different ideas.
Campbell is an honorary member of the NCAA, Canadian Women’s Hockey League and Canadian Women’s National Team, winning a silver medal with the team at the 2015 World Championships.
She hung up her skates in 2017 and became a highly regarded skating coach when she joined Coachella Valley in 2022, except for a brief stint with Sweden’s Malmö Redhawks in 2019-20. The coach represents Germany at the 2022 IIHF World Championship.
She said that while she was running her own business as a skating and skill development coach, the idea of coaching in the NHL felt like an aspiration worth pursuing. Campbell specifically mentioned the time she spent working with Brent Seabrook during his recovery from injury.
“I realized this is what I wanted to do. These guys were on my skates in a big way and maybe I wanted to pursue this goal in a different way, sitting behind the bench and feeling like what I’m teaching, what I’m doing What works with them is a translation and making an impact in a different way,” Campbell said.
Campbell is also the AHL’s first full-time female assistant coach.
The 32-year-old Rocanville, Sask., native was hired before the start of her first season in Coachella Valley, becoming the AHL’s first full-time female assistant coach. She also served as an assistant coach for the Kraken’s preseason game against Calgary last September.
Bylsma noted the work Campbell did in developing players like Ryker Evans, Shane Wright and Tye Kartye during his time at Coachella Valley — both are important players for Kraken moving forward — which is one of the reasons he wanted to bring her to Seattle.
“Tye Kartye has done the job. It’s all on Tye, but it’s under Jessica’s guidance. She’s grown, she’s proven that over the past two years, so it makes me hungry for her to have The opportunity to do that at the NHL level,” Bylsma said.
The NHL has lagged behind the NBA, MLB and NFL in having women on the bench.
The NHL Coaches Association launched a female coaching development program in 2021 with the goal of expanding the pool of available candidates.
Even before joining the league in 2021, Kraken has been at the forefront of providing opportunities for women in hockey. Current assistant general manager Alexandra Mandrycky was one of the team’s first front office hires in 2018 as director of hockey management and was part of the team that led the search for a general manager, ultimately hiring Ron Francis.
Namita Nandakumar was hired in 2020 and is a senior analyst in hockey operations.
Seattle also hired Hall of Famer Cammi Granato as a pro scout in 2019, a position she held before joining the Vancouver Canucks as assistant general manager in 2022.
Along with Campbell, the Kraken hired Bob Woods as one of Bylsma’s assistants, filling another hole on the coaching staff. Woods had been an assistant coach at Minnesota since 2017 but was fired early last season when head coach Dean Evason was fired.
Assistant coach Dave Lowry, goalie coach Steve Briere, video coach Tim Ohashi and video assistant Brady Morgan round out the coaching staff.
