Jessica Campbell to become 1st woman on an NHL bench as assistant coach with Kraken

Jessica Campbell will turn out to be the primary lady to work on the bench of an NHL franchise after the Seattle Kraken employed her as an assistant coach Wednesday.

Campbell has spent the previous two seasons working as an assistant coach for Seattle’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley alongside head coach Dan Bylsma, who was employed in late Could to take over the top job with the Kraken. There have been speedy questions on whether or not Campbell could be making the transfer with Bylsma to Seattle.

She is going to, breaking by means of one other barrier for ladies in hockey. Emily Engel-Natzke was employed by the Washington Capitals in 2022 as video coach, making her the primary lady with a full-time assistant function within the league.

Now, there might be a lady on the bench.

“Throughout our tenure in Coachella Valley, I noticed firsthand Jessica’s dedication to participant improvement,” Bylsma mentioned. “Her potential to determine relationships together with her gamers, particularly Tye Kartye, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans, was an necessary issue on this rent. I am trying ahead to persevering with to work together with her on the NHL stage.”

Campbell was a adorned participant within the NCAA, the Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League and Canada’s ladies’s nationwide crew, with whom she received silver on the 2015 world championship.

Apart from a brief stint with the Malmo Redhawks in Sweden in 2019-20, she hung up her skates in 2017 and had turn out to be extremely thought to be a skating coach when she joined Coachella Valley in 2022. She had additionally labored as an assistant coach for Germany in the course of the 2022 IIHF World Championships.

1st full-time feminine assistant coach in AHL

The 32-year-old native of Rocanville, Sask., was the primary full-time feminine assistant coach within the AHL when she was employed by Coachella Valley earlier than the beginning of its first season. She additionally had a one-game stint as an assistant on the Kraken bench for a pre-season sport in opposition to Calgary final September.

However having a lady on the bench as a coach has been an space the place the NHL has lagged behind the NBA, MLB and NFL.

The NHL Coaches Affiliation launched a Feminine Coaches Growth Program in 2021 with the purpose of rising the pool of accessible candidates.

Even earlier than becoming a member of the league in 2021, the Kraken have been on the forefront of giving ladies alternatives in hockey operations. Present assistant normal supervisor Alexandra Mandrycky was one of many first front-office hires made by the franchise in 2018 as director of hockey administration and was a part of the group that led the seek for a normal supervisor that ended with the rent of Ron Francis.

Namita Nandakumar was employed in 2020 and is a senior analyst in hockey operations.

Seattle additionally employed Corridor of Famer Cammi Granato as a professional scout in 2019, a job she held earlier than becoming a member of the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant GM in 2022.

Together with Campbell, the Kraken crammed one other spot on the teaching workers by hiring Bob Woods as one among Bylsma’s assistants. Woods was an assistant with Minnesota since 2017, however was let go when Dean Evason was fired as head coach early final season.

Assistant coach Dave Lowry, goaltending coach Steve Briere, video coach Tim Ohashi and video assistant Brady Morgan full the remainder of the teaching workers.