She shoots, she scores, Jessica Campbell is now the first woman to be hired as a full-time assistant coach to an NHL team. On Tuesday, Campbell made her debut with the coaching staff of the Seattle Kraken when they played the St. Louis Blues. The team was unfortunately defeated, but the night was a victory for Campbell.
Campbell described the opening of the game, according to USA Today, saying, “The moment leading up to the game and stepping on the bench … I'm really going to try to honor what it is, because I know, and I definitely understand that the magnitude and the importance of this moment is really important for our game.”
Campbell isn’t the only new face on the Kraken coaching staff, Dan Bylsma and Campbell previously coached the Coachella Valley Firebirds together. After being hired as the new Kraken head coach, Bylsma hired Campbell as well.
Along with coaching the Coachella Valley Firebirds to the AHL Calder Cup Finals, Campbell has also coached for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers, one of Germany’s top men’s professional leagues, and she coached for Germany during the 2022 World Championships.
Related: Lindsey Harding Hired as Los Angeles Laker's First-Ever Female Assistant Coach
“Hopefully somebody else will have a door held open for them versus them having to push it open and find ways to unlock it," Campbell said. "I look at the other women around me and other people in the industry doing their piece and doing a fantastic job of it. And it's part of a movement. It's part of, I think, really important change. Anytime you have different people in the room, you get different and good outcomes; you get unique outcomes. You get problems solved in a different way and I think that's how you get ahead in life and in sport."
Campbell now joins the ranks of a select few women in important coaching positions across all men’s professional sports. Earlier this year, Lindsey Harding was hired as the Los Angeles Laker’s first-ever female assistant coach, one of roughly five in the whole NBA. Win or lose as a team, these women are making strides for gender equality in professional sports.
As Kraken head coach Bylsma said after Tuesday’s game, “Jessica being a female coach in the NHL for the first time, it's great for her and it's great for the game."
