Jessica Campbell was hired this past July as a full-time assistant coach for the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken team. On Oct. 8, she officially coached her first game at the Kraken’s home opener – a milestone achievement in the world of national sports.
Neither Canada nor the United States had established women’s national teams until 1987, with the first IIHF Women’s World Championship in 1990. In 1998, the Olympics finally added a women’s tournament. More than two decades later, the NHL has introduced Campbell as its first female coach.
Campbell’s credibility and knowledge traces back to her playing experiences in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, and winning silver in 2015 with Canada’s National Women’s Team. In 2017, she hung up her skates and took on a second career with her own business as an entrepreneur to train top athletes: JC Powerskating.
She started her coaching career in Europe as an assistant coach for Germany’s men’s team at the IIHF World Championship in 2022. Dan Bylsma, head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds (‘22-’23, ‘23-’24) and most recently the Kraken’s head coach, took notice of Campbell’s talent and added her to his staff as an assistant. This made Campbell the first woman employed full-time as a behind-the-bench coach in the American Hockey League (AHL), a developmental league for the NHL. As of the 2024-25 season, all 32 NHL teams had an AHL affiliate – the Firebirds serving as the affiliate for the Kraken.
Campbell managed offense, power play, and player development for the Firebirds, helping them make it to the 2022 Calder Cup Finals. She worked directly with forwards Tye Kartye, Shane Wright, and Ryker Evans, who have all now moved up to play for the Kraken.
Her role with the Kraken in their fourth season will be similar in that she will be working to maximize the talent of the team’s offense on the power play, like she did with the Firebirds.
“I’m just trying to continue to have a strong impact on every player that I’ve got the opportunity to work with and not take that lightly,” she said in The Athletic. “I’m here and now I’m just going to own the moment and enjoy the opportunity to be doing what I love on the biggest stage in the world.”
Campbell’s achievement has opened the door for more women to enter coaching positions within the NHL. One can hope that while she is the first female coach in the league, she will not be the last. Ideally, future stories of women in the NHL will be plentiful, and remarkable for the fact that they are new coaches, not simply because they are women.
