![Seattle Kraken's new head coach Jessica Campbell speaks during an NHL hockey press conference in Seattle on Wednesday.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4200x2801+0+0/resize/1100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc2%2F48%2F469b41dd4ea396610ec1cc1fd3e8%2Fap24185769511861.jpg)
Seattle Kraken's new head coach Jessica Campbell speaks during an NHL hockey press conference in Seattle on Wednesday. Campbell will be the first woman to work behind the bench for an NHL franchise after the team hired her as head coach.
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SEATTLE — After her playing career ended, Jessica Campbell found a new passion in coaching.
At the time, she probably didn't expect that it would eventually lead her to the NHL, much less become the first woman to work the bench for an NHL franchise.
![Minnesota forward Mikela Cava (center right) celebrates with defenseman Abby Cook (right) and teammates after scoring a goal during Game 2 of a PWHL hockey game against Montreal on Wednesday in St. Paul, Minn.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1319x1319+961+136/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F94%2F6e%2F7224b2bf41e8b2fe1626ecaa7cae%2Fap24047821110057.jpg)
“I probably had the courage, naively, to believe that this was possible, and I didn’t see it, but I believed that I could do it,” Campbell said. “And I think with that inner belief, you can create anything you believe in, in sports and in life.”
Campbell was hired as head coach of the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, becoming the first woman in NHL history to serve as head coach or assistant coach behind the bench.
She spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with Seattle’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley, working with Dan Weilsma, who was hired as the Kraken’s head coach in late May. There was immediate question as to whether Campbell would move on.
She will break another barrier for women in hockey. Emily Angel-Natzke was hired as a video coach by the Washington Capitals in 2022, becoming the first woman to hold a full-time assistant role in the league.
Now a woman will sit on the bench.
“I'm honored to be here, and honored to be the first to speak, and to be the first. But I don't focus on that. I always focus on the work. I focus on the impact. I focus on the work. There's so much to this game and this job, and I've never taken it for granted,” Campbell said.
![Jessica Campbell (left), head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, works with Seattle Kraken coaches behind the bench during Game 2 of an NHL preseason hockey game against the Calgary Flames on Sept. 25 in Seattle.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3303x2565+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb6%2Fde%2Fc9706f6b448e911c48fcc530e316%2Fap23269141372628.jpg)
Jessica Campbell (left), head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, works with Seattle Kraken coaches behind the bench during Game 2 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 that I remind myself often, and that gives a lot of meaning to my work. And I know that if the team is successful and I have a good impact, it can potentially open up opportunities for other people, and open other people's eyes to think differently.”
Campbell was a standout player for the NCAA, Canadian Women's Hockey League, and Canada's national team, winning a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships.
She retired from skating in 2017, except for a brief stint with Sweden's Malmö Redhawks in the 2019-20 season, and is highly regarded as a skating coach, joining Coachella Valley in 2022. She also served as Germany's head coach during the 2022 IIHF World Championships.
She said coaching in the NHL felt like a passion worth pursuing while she was running her own business as a skating and skill development coach. Campbell specifically mentioned her time working with Brent Seabrook while he was recovering from injury.
“I realized that this is what I want to do. These guys are showing up for my skating in numbers, and maybe I wanted to pursue this goal from a different perspective, stand behind the bench, and feel like what I was teaching and working with was translating and hitting the mark in a different way,” Campbell said.
Campbell was also the AHL's first full-time female assistant coach.
The 32-year-old from Rockanville, Saskatchewan, was the first full-time female assistant coach in the AHL when she was hired by Coachella Valley before its inaugural season. She also served as an assistant on the Kraken bench for one game in a preseason game against Calgary last September.
Weilsma cited Campbell's accomplishments while in Coachella Valley, where she helped develop future Kraken key players like Ryker Evans, Shane Wright and Ty Carty, as one of the reasons he wanted to bring her to Seattle.
“Ty Carty did the job. It's all Ty's fault, but it's Jessica's guidance. She's grown and she's proven that over the last two years, so hopefully she gets a chance to do that at the NHL level,” Bielsma said.
The NHL lags behind the NBA, MLB and NFL in having women on the bench as coaches.
The NHL Coaches Association launched a women's coach development program in 2021 with the goal of increasing the pool of eligible candidates.
Even before joining the league in 2021, the Kraken has been a leader in providing opportunities for women in hockey operations. Current assistant general manager Alexandra Mandriki was one of the first front office hires for the franchise in 2018 as director of hockey administration and was part of the group that led the general manager search that ended with the hiring of Ron Francis.
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Namita Nandakumar was hired in 2020 and is the Senior Analyst for Hockey Operations.
Seattle also hired Hall of Famer Kami Granato as a pro scout in 2019, a role she held until she joined the Vancouver Canucks in 2022 to become general manager.
Along with Campbell, the Kraken has filled another spot on the coaching staff by hiring Bob Woods as one of Bylsma’s assistants. Woods had been an assistant in Minnesota since 2017, but was fired early last season when Dean Evason was fired as head coach.
Head coach Dave Lowry, goaltending coach Steve Briere, video coach Tim Ohashi and video assistant Brady Morgan round out the rest of the coaching staff.