Jessica Campbell Makes Official Debut As First Female NHL Coach

It's officially official: Jessica Campbell has become the first woman to serve full-time as an assistant coach in the National Hockey League when she was behind the Seattle Kraken bench for the first regular season on North American soil of the 2024-25 season.

Campbell was hired by new Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma, and it was pretty obvious that when Bylsma got the nod with the Kraken, Campbell would be joining his staff.

That's because she was part of his staff with the AHL's Coachella Valley Firebirds which, in its first two years of existence, made it to the Calder Cup Final, only to lose to the Hershey Bears both times.

So, yeah, there was some success with those two behind the bench.

In addition, Campbell coached in Europe and worked as a skating and skills coach. In her playing days, she laced them up for Cornell and Team Canada.

So, yeah, Campbell is absolutely more than deserving of a crack at coaching in the NHL ranks.

Bylsma also brought in veteran coach Bob Woods, and the new staff got their first taste of regular season action on Tuesday with a matinee against the St. Louis Blues, and when the puck dropped, Campbell put her name in the history books.

After a scoreless first period in which the Kraken looked to be the team that had their legs, Seattle opened the scoring with two goals and nearly added a third that was ruled to have been offside.

However, St. Louis barreled back, scoring three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead.

The Kraken pulled netminder Philip Gurbauer late in the third for the extra attacker and Campbell was tasked with designing the play for the ensuing offensive zone faceoff.

Unfortunately for Seattle, it wasn't able to even the score and was dealt a loss in Game 1 of 82.

Congratulations to Jessica Campbell on a massive accomplishment!