Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell hired by NHL’s Seattle Kraken

The 32-year-old Campbell turns into the primary full-time feminine assistant coach in NHL historical past

Printed Jul 03, 2024  •  Final up to date 6 hours in the past  •  3 minute learn

Jessica Campbell, left, on the bench as the assistant coach for the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Jessica Campbell, left, on the bench because the assistant coach for the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Photograph by Jason Redmond /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made historical past by turning into the primary feminine assistant coach in NHL historical past.

On Wednesday, the Seattle Kraken introduced that the 32-year-old — who hung out rising up in Rocanville and Melville — has been named to Dan Bylsma’s teaching workers for the 2024-25 season.

For the previous two seasons, Campbell was an assistant coach with Seattle’s American Hockey League affiliate, Coachella Valley Firebirds, the place she labored alongside Bylsma, who was promoted to go coach of the Kraken earlier this low season.

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“Throughout our tenure in Coachella Valley, I noticed firsthand Jessica’s dedication to participant improvement,” Bylsma mentioned in a launch. “Her potential to determine relationships along with her gamers, particularly Tye Kartye, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans, was an necessary issue on this rent.

“I’m trying ahead to persevering with to work along with her on the NHL degree.”

“She has the flexibility to narrate to gamers about their video games and what they create to a workforce.”

When Campbell joined the Firebirds throughout their inaugural season in 2022-23, she turned the primary feminine to be behind the bench in AHL historical past.

Previous to that, she hung out as an assistant coach and expertise coach in Germany with the Nurnberg Ice Tigers, whereas additionally serving as an assistant for Germany’s nationwide males’s workforce on the 2022 world championships, the place she turned the primary feminine to be behind the bench at males’s worlds.

Campbell acquired her begin in teaching as an assistant with the Pursuit of Excellence’s girls’s under-18 workforce in Kelowna for 2 seasons from 2017 to 2019.

She was an assistant coach with the Okanagan Hockey Academy’s under-18 girls’s workforce for one season in 2019-20 earlier than the pandemic hit.

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In the course of the pandemic, Campbell served as an influence skating and expertise coach for a number of NHL gamers who sought out her coaching, JC Powerskating, in Kelowna. She was additionally the skating coach for the Malmo Redhawks in Sweden’s skilled league in 2020-21.

Earlier than moving into teaching, Campbell suited up for the Rocanville Jr. Tigers in minor hockey earlier than enjoying for the Melville Prairie Fireplace within the Saskatchewan Feminine AAA Hockey League.

She went on to play two seasons with the Pursuit of Excellence squad, whereas additionally suiting up for Group Canada’s under-18 girls’s workforce, captaining the workforce to a gold medal at worlds in 2010.

Campbell attended Cornell College from 2010 to 2014, captaining the ladies’s hockey workforce in her closing season, ending off with 100 factors in 131 profession NCAA video games.

She performed three seasons for the Calgary Inferno within the Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League from 2014 to 2017, whereas additionally suiting up for the Canadian girls’s nationwide workforce in 2014 for the 4 Nations Cup earlier than successful a silver medal on the 2015 IIHF World Ladies’s Championship.

In the meantime, the Kraken additionally employed veteran assistant coach Bob Woods, a Leroy, Sask. product who performed with the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks and WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings previous to a prolonged minor professional profession.

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The 56-year-old, who additionally had a stint teaching the Saskatoon Blades from 2014 to 2016, has been an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild for the final seven years.

“This is a crucial day for our group,” Kraken basic supervisor Ron Francis mentioned in a launch. “We’re bringing in precious teaching expertise to our workers and are assured that each Bob and Jessica will make a direct impression for our workforce.”

Rounding out Seattle’s teaching workers is returning assistant Dave Lowry and goalie coach Steve Briere.

tshire@postmedia.com

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