Jessica Campbell will become the first woman to work on the bench of an NHL team after the Seattle Kraken hired her as an assistant coach on Wednesday. Campbell has spent the past two seasons working as an assistant coach for Seattle's AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley alongside head coach Dan Bylsma, who was hired in late May for the head job with the Kraken. There was immediate speculation about whether Campbell would make the move with Bylsma to Seattle. She will, breaking through another barrier for women in hockey, the AP reports. Emily Engel-Natzke was hired by the Washington Capitals in 2022 as video coach, making her the first woman with a full-time assistant role in the league.
Now, there will be a woman on the bench. "During our tenure in Coachella Valley, I saw firsthand Jessica's commitment to player development," Bylsma said, citing her ability to establish relationships with players. "I'm looking forward to continuing to work with her at the NHL level." Campbell was a decorated player in the NCAA, the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and Canada's women's national team, with which she won silver at the 2015 world championship. With the exception of a short stint with the Malmo Redhawks in Sweden in 2019-20, she hung up her skates in 2017 and was a highly regarded skating coach when she joined Coachella Valley in 2022. She had also worked as an assistant coach for Germany during the 2022 IIHF World Championships.
The 32-year-old native of Rocanville, Saskatchewan, was the first full-time female assistant coach in the AHL when she was hired by Coachella Valley before the start of its first season. She had a one-game stint as an assistant on the Kraken bench for a preseason game against Calgary last September. But having a woman on the bench as a coach has been an area where the NHL has lagged behind the NBA, MLB, and NFL. The NHL Coaches Association launched a Female Coaches Development Program in 2021, per the AP.
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