Ice hockey premiere

NHL team hires first female coach!

Jessica Campbell(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Seattle Kraken have become the first NHL team to hire a full-time female coach! The 32-year-old Jessica Campbell will serve as an assistant coach on Head Coach Dan Bylsma's staff.

The former Canadian team player was most recently co-coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the second-tier AHL and has already appeared on the big stage before that, for example when she was part of the staff of the German men's national team at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship.

Campbell's appointment follows a handful of similar appointments in the top professional men's sports leagues in North America. However, the head coaching position is still exclusively held by men.