Jessica Campbell thought it was a joke when the Seattle Kraken called offering her the job as assistant coach. Far from a joke, she has made history. An article in USA Today reports that Campbell was hired in July of 2024 as an assistant coach to the Kraken, making her the first full-time female identifying assistant coach in the league’s history.
This is not Campbell’s first assistant coaching job, as she has also made history being the first female assistant coach in the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2022. The USA Today article follows her journey with the Coachella Valley Firebirds working under Dan Bylsma. Bylsma, a Stanley Cup Winner, hired Campbell for her coaching talents in 2022. Under Campbell’s and Bylsma’s coaching, the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds were able to reach the Calder Cup Finals two seasons in a row. Bylsma has since been named the coach of the NHL’s Kraken in May of 2024 and brought Campbell with him.
Campbell has also held similarly important assistant coaching positions for a wide array of organizations. These teams include the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, which is one of Germany’s professional hockey leagues, and Germany’s 2022 World Championships Team.
While Campbell is making strides as an assistant coach, one should also acknowledge her talents on the ice. Campbell played hockey in college at Cornell University from 2010-2014. While at Cornell Campbell was named the team’s captain during her senior year. From college, she went on to play hockey professionally in both Canada and Sweden.
This is often the case for many coaches in the NHL, playing throughout their life, eventually making it to playing in the NHL themselves, and then becoming coaches within the league. However, this was not the case for Campbell. Campbell’s unique experience is part of the reason her position in the organization is impressive, as she is not a retired NHL player herself. It is increasingly difficult for the league to get new faces, and Campbell is just that.
Having made her coaching debut in the NHL on Tuesday October 8th, 2024, against the St. Louis Blues, she has continued to prove her coaching skill with the team. This job, that seems so natural to her, was not always in the cards for Campbell.
A CNBC article notes how she quit her job to focus on her dream of being a NHL coach. It wasn’t until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic that Campbell started to see her dreams coming to reality.
After starting her own business, called JC Power Skating, Campbell was able to get the attention of players who were looking for somewhere to skate during the pandemic. As players across Canada started to hear about her training camp, she began gaining more and more NHL players in her sessions.
After being an organization for over 107 years, the NHL officially has their first female assistant coach in 2024. Having broken barriers before in the AHL, Campbell seems more than ready to take on whatever comes her way in the National Hockey League.
