Jessica Campbell was promoted to Seattle Kraken assistant coach Wednesday, making her the primary lady to carry that job full-time with an NHL crew.
Campbell spent the previous two seasons as an assistant underneath Dan Bylsma with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Seattle’s AHL affiliate, and helped them attain the Calder Cup Closing in back-to-back years.
She held quite a few totally different obligations with the Firebirds — overseeing the forwards and energy play, whereas additionally doing expertise work on the aspect.
A former high-level nationwide crew participant in Canada with a background as a world-class skating coach, Campbell has been credited with serving to the event of quite a few the group’s younger prospects. Essentially the most notable amongst them is ahead Tye Kartye, an undrafted free agent who was named the AHL’s rookie of the yr whereas with the Firebirds in 2023 and graduated to a task with the Kraken this previous season.
Campbell joins Emily Engel-Natzke — a video coach for the Washington Capitals — as the one ladies employed as touring full-time members of NHL teaching staffs. Different ladies have been employed in non permanent or part-time work by NHL groups or as visitor coaches and trainers, however Campbell would be the first on the bench full-time.
Campbell beforehand turned the primary lady to be a full-time assistant coach within the AHL when she was employed by Coachella Valley in July 2022, and she or he was the primary lady to teach on the males’s IIHF World Hockey Championship when she was on the German bench as an assistant for the 2022 event in Finland.
She additionally labored as an assistant coach and expertise coach for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers within the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
Campbell was the primary assistant employed by Bylsma when he took over the Firebirds and made an instantaneous impression on these on the high ranges of the group due to her distinctive skillset.
“The job she’s carried out is the explanation why we employed her,” Kraken normal supervisor Ron Francis advised reporters in Might. “We didn’t rent her as a result of she was feminine. We employed her as a result of she was an excellent coach. She has an attention-grabbing background, not solely skating however talent growth, and that’s a giant a part of what they’ve been in a position to do at Coachella Valley.”
The Kraken employed Bylsma to exchange Dave Hakstol as head coach on Might 28.
“Throughout our tenure in Coachella Valley, I noticed firsthand Jessica’s dedication to participant growth,” Bylsma mentioned in a launch from the crew Wednesday. “Her capability to determine relationships together with her gamers, particularly Tye Kartye, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans, was an vital issue on this rent. I’m trying ahead to persevering with to work together with her on the NHL degree.”
Campbell joins Bob Woods and Dave Lowry as assistants on his employees in Seattle.
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(Photograph: Martin Meissner / Related Press)