JESSICA CAMPBELL BREAKS NHL BARRIERS

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Jessica Campbell Breaks Barriers as the First Female Assistant Coach in NHL History

Stand­ing behind the bench for the Seat­tle Krak­en, Camp­bell made her debut as the Krak­en faced off against the St. Louis Blues at the Cli­mate Pledge Are­na in Seat­tle.
Camp­bell, 32, was appoint­ed assis­tant coach in July by head coach Dan Byls­ma. The two have a strong coach­ing rela­tion­ship, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly worked togeth­er with the Kraken’s minor league team, the Coachel­la Val­ley Fire­birds.

Reflect­ing on the sig­nif­i­cance of the moment, Camp­bell shared with NHL.com, “This sea­son is going to be incred­i­ble, but there’s always a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty when you real­ize there are oth­er women and peo­ple who share your dreams. Car­ry­ing that torch each day is some­thing I take seri­ous­ly, but at the end of the day, I’m focused on being the best coach I can be.”

As the game kicked off, it was busi­ness as usu­al for Camp­bell. “It felt nat­ur­al,” she told ESPN after the first peri­od. “I’ve been in this role for a while now, but there’s def­i­nite­ly that surge of emo­tion and excite­ment that comes with the start of a new sea­son.”

Campbell’s jour­ney to the NHL is a tes­ta­ment to her ded­i­ca­tion and skill. As a play­er, she helped Cana­da win the U18 Women’s World Cham­pi­onship in 2010 and added a sil­ver medal from the 2015 Women’s World Cham­pi­onship to her impres­sive list of achieve­ments. 

Her coach­ing career began in 2022 when she joined Byls­ma as part of the Fire­birds’ staff. There, she became the first female coach in the Amer­i­can Hock­ey League (AHL), mak­ing waves as she helped guide the team through a suc­cess­ful sea­son.

Byls­ma, reflect­ing on their time togeth­er, spoke high­ly of Campbell’s growth as a coach: “When we start­ed work­ing togeth­er two years ago, she was just start­ing her coach­ing career. She’s devel­oped and improved so much since then. We’ve chal­lenged each oth­er, and she’s made me a bet­ter coach in the process. I tru­ly believe in her abil­i­ties, and I know she’ll make an impact on our play­ers, both indi­vid­u­al­ly and as a team.”

With her wealth of expe­ri­ence and the respect of her peers, Campbell’s appoint­ment to the NHL isn’t just a per­son­al mile­stone – it’s a moment that will inspire count­less oth­ers.