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Seattle Kraken Make NHL History By Hiring First-Ever Woman Assistant Coach

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The Seattle Kraken are having an exciting offseason. The team signed an exclusive deal with Amazon, as Prime Video will stream all non-nationally televised games for Prime members in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The Kraken also landed the top defenseman and Stanley Cup champion, Brandon Montour.

The Kraken have not stopped there, as the team has officially made history by signing the league’s first-ever female assistant coach.

The team announced that Jessica Campbell will be joining the Kraken as the first female assistant coach in NHL history.

Campbell comes to the Kraken with a wealth of experience dating back to her beginning days of playing with Team Saskatchewan at the National Women’s Under-18 Championship, where she served as team captain twice. After a stint with Team Saskatchewan and Hockey Canada’s Pursuit of Excellence team, she would go on to play hockey in college at Cornell.

Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell — Germany’s Canadian Assistant Coach Jessica Campbell follows the action during the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships preliminary round group A match between Germany and Denmark in Helsinki on May 19, 2022. The Kraken make…
Germany’s Canadian Assistant Coach Jessica Campbell follows the action during the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships preliminary round group A match between Germany and Denmark in Helsinki on May 19, 2022. The Kraken make NHL history by hiring Jessica Campbell as first woman assistant coach.

JUSSI NUKARI/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images

In her four years playing for Cornell, Campbell secured 46 goals and 54 assists.

Campbell would then head to the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, where she spent three seasons playing for the Calgary Inferno. She would secure 29 goals and 21 assists in her time there.

Campbell also represented Canada’s national team, securing three medals. She secured a silver medal with Canada Women’s National Under-18 Ice Hockey Team in 2009, a gold medal in 2010, and a silver medal in 2015 when she played for Canada in the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship.

Campbell would retire from Canada’s national team in 2017 and transition into coaching. She owned JC Powerskating, where she coached players like Tyson Jost and Joel Edmundson.

She would be hired by the Coachella Valley Firebirds in 2022, which is the top minor league affiliate of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. Campbell would make history by being the first woman employed on a full-time basis as a behind-the-bench coach in the AHL.

Now, she joins the Kraken as the first woman in the history of the NHL to hold an assistant, associate, or head coach position in the league.

The Kraken are looking to rebound after a 2023 season that saw the team fall to fifth in the Pacific Division with a 34-35 record. After finishing fourth in the Pacific in 2022 with a 46-28 record, the team took a step back this past season.

Hopefully, Campbell and new Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma can bring the Kraken back to Pacific Division relevancy.