Jessica Campbell named AHL’s first female assistant coach

Jessica Campbell broke an expert hockey barrier for ladies as the primary feminine assistant coach within the American Hockey League.

The 30-year-old from Rocanville, Sask., was named to the Coachella Valley Firebirds teaching employees Tuesday.

She joins head coach Dan Bylsma behind the bench of the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate in its inaugural season.

Campbell’s appointment comes weeks after she was the primary girl on a training employees on the males’s world championship in Finland, the place she was an assistant for Germany.

The New York Rangers introduced final month Campbell could be a visitor coach at their summer season growth camp, however the Kraken have lured her away with a extra plum place.

“What was sort of distinctive with the timing of the whole lot, Dan Bylsma reached out very shortly after the whole lot had been introduced and he was speaking a couple of long-term alternative inside Coachella and the Kraken group,” Campbell mentioned.

“It is at all times been my purpose to attempt to put myself down a path the place I may very well be full time on the professional degree.”

Campbell heads to Seattle’s growth camp beginning Monday to work with Kraken prospects drafted or signed as free brokers during the last two seasons.

Bylsma, who coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009, mentioned Kraken basic supervisor Ron Francis requested him what qualities he needed in an assistant coach.

“I needed an up-and-coming coach,” Bylsma mentioned. “I needed a coach with a ton of ardour, that is going to show they will get in and do the work with the gamers. That is the coach I got down to search for. Jessica’s title popped up.

“Simply speaking with Jess over a pair conversations, it was clear and evident to me what she’s finished within the final three years in her skating colleges and talent growth with NHL gamers and professional gamers … she is that up-and-coming coach.”

Campbell spent this previous season working with the USHL’s Tri-Metropolis Storm in growth and heading the Windy Metropolis Storm Ladies’ Hockey program in Chicago.

Campbell was additionally was invited to be a expertise coach for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers within the German Elite League (DEL). Her function was expanded upon arrival to assistant coach which put her on the bench for video games.

“Issues sort of escalated ever since I went to Germany and labored within the DEL,” Campbell mentioned. “The gamers have been my largest advocates.

“That led to the chance to teach on the world championship. Returning again from the world championship, I used to be excited in regards to the professional path I used to be occurring the professional facet of the sport. Fortunately some individuals took discover and acknowledged the work.”

NHL groups have employed and promoted a number of girls just lately in scouting, participant personnel and administration roles.

The Toronto Maple Leafs (Hayley Wickenheiser), Chicago Blackhawks (Meghan Hunter), Vancouver Canucks (Cammi Granato, Emilie Castonguay) put these girls in assistant basic supervisor roles.

A girl has but to face behind an NHL bench teaching in a sport, nonetheless. Campbell is a candidate to take action.

“I am working towards that purpose for positive,” Campbell mentioned. “I am attempting to get the correct expertise and be taught from the perfect.

“It is a job that’s robust to do. You have to be ready and execute and you have to do a very good job to have the ability to be in that place and main guys on the highest degree.

“The visibility of this for me is necessary, however on the identical time, my job is paramount, teaching and ensuring that I am doing the perfect I can.”

Campbell performed for the Canadian girls’s hockey group that earned silver on the 2015 world championship in Malmo, Sweden.

The ahead additionally represented Canada on the earth under-18 girls’s championship in 2009 and 2010. Campbell was captain of the group in 2010 and scored Canada’s time beyond regulation purpose in a 5-4 win over the U.S. for the gold medal.

She spent three Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League seasons (2014-17) with the Calgary Inferno and received a Clarkson Cup with them in 2016. She scored twice in an 8-3 win over Montreal within the championship sport.

Campbell was simply beginning a enterprise as a powerskating coach in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Some NHL gamers within the Kelowna, B.C., space the place she was dwelling reached out to her for assist forward of Edmonton’s playoff bubble in August.

Luke Schenn, Shea Weber, Andrew Ladd and Brent Seabrook have been amongst roughly 20 NHL gamers Campbell prepped for the playoffs.

“That is after I knew I might do that,” Campbell mentioned. “There’s worth right here. Guys are exhibiting up for my work and so they need me to run these skates and that is after I acquired excited in regards to the future that I had within the sport and on the professional degree.”

Campbell additionally determine skated on the CBC’s “Battle Of The Blades” in 2020 and completed second with companion Asher Hill.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed July 5, 2022.