Campbell is poised to make history with the Kraken as the first woman to coach in the NHL

Seattle — Jessica Campbell has a tattoo on the back of her right hand of the Finnish word “Ytimessa,” which became a mantra when she was an assistant coach of the German men’s national team in 2021-22.

“It flows, actually. It’s a state of flow,” said Campbell, who has the Swedish Crown on the outside of his right hand from his time as a figure skating coach in Malmo, Sweden, in 2020-21. “These are all my training sessions.”

Campbell doesn’t foresee adding another tattoo, but the mark he’s making on the hockey world will be indelible.

Campbell is the first woman to become a full-time assistant coach in the NHL and will be behind the bench when the Seattle Kraken open their season against the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday (4:30 pm ET, ESPN, ESPN+ , SN360, TVAS).

“Next year will be very interesting. “But knowing and understanding that it’s clear that the thoughts of other women and other people who have the same aspirations as mine are still at the fore,” she told NHL.com. “So, carrying that torch every day and focusing on being a coach, but it definitely puts the mind at work.”

Campbell is a member of the NHL Coaches’ Association’s Female Coaches Program, which supports female coaches with skill development, leadership strategies, communication strategies, networking, and career development opportunities. Now in its fifth year, the NHLCA Female Coaches Program has more than 100 women, the largest membership in the program’s history. This season, they welcomed 34 new women to the show.

Campbell, 32, was named an assistant coach for the Kraken on July 3, joining Dan Bylsma, who was named the Seattle coach on May 28. Bylsma was the coach and Campbell an assistant the past two seasons for Coachella Valley, the Kraken’s American Hockey League affiliate.

There’s also the familiarity of two other former Coachella Valley players who now play with the Kraken, including seniors Shane Wright, Tye Kartye and Ryan Winterton.

Since he was in the AHL, Campbell has managed the forwards and power play in Seattle. In their two seasons in the AHL (2022-24), Bylsma and Campbell helped lead the Coachella Valley to second place in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in 2022-23 before winning the division last season. The Firebirds lost in the Calder Cup final to the Hershey Bears each season.

Bylsma said Campbell’s coaching benefited not only the Firebirds, but also him.

“Two years ago he was a young coach. He had to grow and develop as a coach and I think our relationship was like that,” said Bylsma. “Maybe I challenged him a few times to do things differently or think differently. But at the same time, he, knowingly or unknowingly, has challenged me as a coach to make sure I am the coach I want to be.

“So, getting a chance in the NHL is because I believe in the skills and qualities that each player brings and that he can give them and help them become better in their place, in their own way and in their own way. team approach.”

The Kraken have been at the forefront of the fight to recruit women into hockey. One of their first steps was to name Alexandra Mandrycky as director of hockey administration. He helped bring general manager Ron Francis on board and, in 2022, was promoted to general manager. The Kraken added Cammi Granato, a legend in women’s hockey, as the first female NHL scout on September 25, 2019. Granato was named an assistant GM with the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 10, 2022.

“We are a unique type of organization in Seattle. I think our organization is 44 percent women and 23 percent BIPOC people working for our organization. But (Campbell) didn’t get the job because she’s a woman,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis told NHL.com at the 2024 NHL Rookie Faceoff in September. “He got this job because he is a skilled coach and we think that he will not only bring the knowledge of a coach, but also the ability to work with our players in skating and skill development. It’s an extra voice in the room and an extra tool to help them do that.”

Kraken forward Matty Beniers said Campbell has settled in well from the start.

“I think he is just another coach, someone who has worked hard to get to where they are,” he said. “The guys at Coachella talked bad about him and said he was good; their power play was really good. They all had good things to say about him and I am sure that the organization and the people who hired him went through the program and saw his qualifications. He has fulfilled what was expected so far and when you get to the rank you are another coach.”

Before retiring as a player in 2017, Campbell played four seasons at Cornell University (2010-14) and three seasons with the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (2014-17). She won gold with the Canadian women’s team at the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championship and 2014 4 Nations Cup, and silver at the 2009 World U18 Championship and 2015 World Championship and 4 Nations Cup.

His first big break in coaching came a few years later. Campbell was teaching power skating at the Pursuit of Excellent Hockey Academy in Kelowna, British Columbia, when Peter Elander, the longtime women’s hockey coach who led Sweden to a silver medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics, asked her whether you want to come to Sweden.

“He knew that at that time I wanted to be a skating coach at this level and a skills coach at this level,” he said. “So you gave me the opportunity to enter Malmo and I was working with a small team and I was able to support the coaching team for a while.”

After that season, Campbell returned to North America and his fledgling business, JC Powerskating, where he trained NHL players including Los Angeles Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson, Nashville Predators defenseman Luke Schenn and Carolina Hurricanes forward Tyson Jost. He also worked with Natalie Spooner, a former Canadian teammate and currently a member of the Toronto Scepters in the PWHL.

“I felt like you were ahead of the game with all these swing tricks to really hide your swing, whether it was jab turns, or hacking into shots,” Spooner said. “We tried to do what he was able to do. It was challenging at first, but he was able to teach it so well that I was able to pick it up by the end of the summer and become a better skater. I could hide my movements a lot during my skating, which was really nice. “

The next coaching opportunity came quickly calling Campbell to Germany in 2021-22. He joined Nurnberg of the German Ice Hockey League, starting as a skating and skills coach. In the second half of the regular season, the head coach, Tom Rowe, asked him to look after the special teams in Nurnberg.

“He said, ‘Okay, introduce it to the guys, you’re going to come to the bench tonight and you’re going to play an electric game,'” he said. “Just a few minutes after the skills session I was behind the bench, practicing and training.”

Campbell called it a “pinch moment, almost an epiphany.”

“I realized that the way I was teaching skating and skills now I was taking it behind the bench and tricks and just trying to connect the pieces and break it down the same way for the boys. Now at the professional level, they can connect the dots and deliver. So I say, ‘This is great fun. I can do this live.’ It not only helped to make a difference in their game but also for the team to be successful and it changed me completely. That I wanted to be behind the bench and be involved at a small tactical team level, not just development. “