New Seattle Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell speaks during an NHL hockey press conference in Seattle on Wednesday. Campbell has been hired by the team as an assistant coach, making her the first woman to work on the bench for an NHL franchise.
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SEATTLE — After her playing career ended, Jessica Campbell found a new passion in coaching.
At the time, she may not have known it would eventually lead to the NHL, much less become the first woman to work the bench for an NHL franchise.
“I had the courage, maybe in a naive way, to believe this was possible, and I believed I could do it even when I couldn't see it,” Campbell said. “And I think with that inner belief, you can create anything you believe in, whether it's in sports or in life.”
Campbell was hired as an assistant coach with the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, becoming the first woman in NHL history to sit on the bench as an assistant or associate coach.
She has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with Seattle's AHL affiliate, Coachella Valley, working alongside Dan Byrsma, who was hired as the Kraken's head coach in late May. Questions were immediately raised about whether Campbell would be moved on.
She will be breaking another barrier for women in hockey: Emily Engel-Natske was hired by the Washington Capitals as a video coach in 2022, becoming the first woman to hold a full-time assistant position in the league.
Now, a woman will be sitting on the bench.
“Obviously, it's an honor for me to be in this position and be the first to speak and be the first, but my focus isn't on that. I'm always focused on the job. I'm focused on the impact. I'm focused on the job. There's so much that goes into this game and the job, so I never take it for granted,” Campbell said.
Jessica Campbell (left), assistant coach for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, worked with the Seattle Kraken coaching staff behind the bench during the second period of an NHL preseason hockey game against the Calgary Flames on Sept. 25 in Seattle.
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“I think the most important thing is to be reminded so often. It gives a lot of meaning to the work. I know that if my team is successful and I have a big impact, it will open doors for others and maybe inspire them to think differently.”
Campbell played for the NCAA, Canadian Women's Hockey League and Canada's Women's National Team, winning a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships.
Other than a brief stint with Sweden's Malmo Redhawks from 2019-2020, she retired from skating in 2017 and was a highly regarded skating coach when she joined Coachella Valley in 2022. She also served as an assistant coach for Germany at the 2022 IIHF World Championship.
Campbell said he felt the idea of coaching in the NHL was a dream worth pursuing while he was running his own business as a skating and skill development coach, pointing specifically to his time working with Brent Seabrook while he was recovering from an injury.
“I realized this is what I wanted to do. I had a lot of guys come watch me skate and maybe they wanted to pursue this goal from a different perspective. I felt like I was standing behind the bench and what I'd been teaching them and what I'd been working on with them was coming through and hitting in a different way,” Campbell said.
Campbell was also the AHL's first full-time female assistant coach.
The 32-year-old Rocanville, Saskatchewan native became the AHL's first full-time female assistant coach when she was hired ahead of the start of the Coachella Valley's inaugural season. She also has one game of experience as an assistant on the Kraken's bench, in a preseason game against Calgary last September.
Bylsma cited Campbell's efforts in developing key Kraken future players such as Ryker Evans, Shane Wright and Ty Carty during her time in the Coachella Valley as one of the reasons she wanted to bring her to Seattle.
“Ty Cartier has put in the work. It's all down to Ty, but also with Jessica's guidance. She's grown and she's proven that over the last two years, so I'm excited for her to get the opportunity to perform at the NHL level,” Bylsma said.
The NHL lags behind the NBA, MLB and NFL when it comes to women sitting on the coaching bench.
The NHL Coaches Association launched a female coaching development program in 2021 with the goal of expanding the pool of candidates.
Even before joining the league in 2021, the Kraken have been at the forefront of creating opportunities for women in hockey operations. Current assistant general manager Aleksandra Mandrycky was one of the franchise's first front office hires as director of hockey administration in 2018 and was part of the group that led the general manager search that ended with the hiring of Ron Francis.
Namita Nandakumar was hired in 2020 and is a senior hockey operations analyst.
Seattle also hired Hall of Famer Kamie Granato as a pro scout in 2019, a role she held until 2022 when she took on the role of assistant general manager for the Vancouver Canucks.
Along with Campbell, the Kraken also filled another spot on their coaching staff by hiring Bob Woods as an assistant to Bylsma. Woods had been an assistant with Minnesota since 2017 but was fired when Dean Evason was fired as head coach at the start of last season.
Assistant coach Dave Lawrie, goalkeeping coach Steve Briere, video coach Tim Ohashi and video assistant Brady Morgan make up the remainder of the coaching staff.
