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It has been a banner year for women in sports. Caitlin Clark has taken the WNBA world by storm and created a new market for the league. The Professional Women's Hockey League began as an opportunity for women hockey players to make a living like the WNBA. Now, a new woman is trying to carve a different path as a coach in a men's professional league. Jessica Campbell became the first woman to stand behind the bench in an NHL game as she was an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken in their season-opening game against the St. Louis Blues.
It isn't the first time a woman has held a prominent role on a men's coaching staff. Becky Hammon was an assistant coach on Gregg Popovich's staff with the San Antonio Spurs from 2014 to 2021. She nearly took the head coach role with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021 but was beaten out by Chauncey Billups. Hammon elected to go to the WNBA as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces instead.
The PWHL could grow to a point where the head coach position is prominent. However, it'll take years before it's on the same level as the WNBA's popularity. It's unlikely that Campbell would accept a role as head coach of a PWHL team over staying in the NHL, which means there's a better chance that Campbell could become a head coach first. Campbell is already a valuable member of the Kraken's coaching staff.
The Kraken were down a goal in the final minute of their season opener. Campbell was the coach tasked with diagramming a play on the whiteboard for the Kraken players, which was a subtle but great moment for the future of women in sports.
Who is Jessica Campbell?
Jessica Campbell started her hockey career growing up in Saskatchewan. Her success growing up led her to play with Cornell's college hockey program. She played 131 games in the NCAA, tallying 46 goals and 54 assists.
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Campbell advanced to play in the CWHL, one of the first professional women's hockey leagues. She was a team captain in the 2014 CWHL All-Star Game and scored the only goal for her team. Campbell played three seasons in the CWHL before ending her North American career in 2017. She returned three seasons later to play five games in the Swedish professional league.
Campbell began her coaching career in 2017 as a skills coach. Her initial clients were Tyson Jost, Joel Edmundson, and Natalie Spooner. Jost and Edmundson are NHL regulars, and Spooner is a top women's hockey player.
Campbell began her initial team coaching in Europe, holding roles with the Nurnberg Ice Tigers and the Malmo Redhawks. She took jobs with those teams hoping to build a rapport of coaching men and blazing a trail to be a coach in North America. The plan worked, as an American Hockey League team called in 2022.
Campbell became the first woman to be a full-time behind-the-bench coach in AHL history. She joined the staff of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the affiliate of the NHL's newest expansion team.
Dan Bylsma led Coachella Valley and earned a promotion to become the head coach of Seattle before the 2024-25 season. Bylsma knew that Campbell was his top assistant coach, and she had to be part of his staff in the NHL. Bylsma has been adamant that the offer had nothing to do with being the first team to hire a woman as a coach and everything to do with her abilities.
