Jessica Campbell grew up in the heart of the prairies and was an integral part of a family where hockey runs deep. Her mother, father, and three siblings all played the game at various levels - from outdoor rinks to youth league tournaments.

Campbell, 32, made history when she was announced on Wednesday as an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken, becoming the first woman ever to hold a position on the bench as an assistant or associate coach in the National Hockey League.

Campbell said in an interview on Friday from her hometown of Rouleau, Saskatchewan: "Clearly, my presence in this position is really special. I'm incredibly excited."

I know there is a long list of other remarkable women who are working in the industry or in my exact position and share the same passion and goals, so I feel very fortunate to carry the torch behind the bench.

"I've always kept my focus on the work, and the meaning behind this work is that it becomes more special knowing that it could likely open up more opportunities for others as a result."

From Player to Coach

Campbell's father, Gary, played hockey, while her mother and sister, Monique and Gina, attended the University of Saskatchewan.

One of her brothers, Dion, played for the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and played collegiately at the University of New Brunswick. Her older brother, Josh, also played for the Terriers when he was killed in a car accident on October 11, 2002. He was 18 years old, and Jessica was 10 at the time.

Jessica adopted her brother's number 8 jersey and dominated boys' leagues. From a young age, she set her sights on the National Hockey League.

She said in an interview with CBC News: "Looking back, I grew up in the locker room with a bunch of boys and never thought anything different."

"I thank my high school coach, Leo Parker, who treated me like one of the boys. I think he instilled in me at an early age that I could do anything they were doing."

Campbell became a decorated player at Cornell University in NCAA. She also played in the Canadian Women's Hockey League and for the Canadian Women's National Team, winning a silver medal at the 2015 World Championship.

Except for a brief stint with Swedish Malmö Redhawks in 2019-20, she hung up her skates in 2017.

Launching her own training company, JC Powerskating, proved pivotal in the next stage of her hockey career. The business took off when NHL stars - such as Shea Weber, Brent Seabrook, and Mathew Barzal - were looking for ways to stay sharp during training breaks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jessica Campbell becomes the first woman behind the bench in the NHL as an assistant coach with the Kraken

Campbell earned significant recognition as a skating coach when she joined the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League in 2022, becoming the first full-time female assistant coach in the league.

Doug Derraugh, who coached Campbell at Cornell and Team Canada, said, "She carries herself with confidence and commitment and passion."

"Gender will become irrelevant; the only question is: who is the best person for the position?".

She briefly served as an assistant coach for Germany during the 2022 IIHF World Championship and spent one game as an assistant on the bench for the Kraken in a preseason game against Calgary last September.

The franchise was drawn to her evident coaching abilities. Head coach Dan Bylsma cited Campbell's work in developing players like Riker Evans, Shane Wright, and Tye Kartye - all key players in the Kraken's forward movement - during their time in Coachella Valley as part of the reason he wanted to bring her to Seattle.

Bylsma said, "Tye Kartye did that work. Everything is on Tye, but it was done with Jessica's guidance. He's grown, and she's shown that over the last couple of years, so it makes me excited for her to have the opportunity to do it at the NHL level".

Campbell attributed her coaching success to her fluency in the universal language of the game, a language rooted in the pursuit of excellence and love for the sport.

She said, "Ultimately, the coach is supposed to serve… and guide the player and their needs". "I want to get in the trenches with them and work to help them unleash every potential they haven't tapped into yet".

The NHL is the last of the major professional sports leagues in North America to see a woman behind the bench, trailing the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball. Emily Engel-Natzke became the first woman to hold a full-time coaching position in the NHL when she was hired by the Washington Capitals as a video coach in 2022, but Campbell is the first woman in her role.

She never saw this path for herself because, without a role model to emulate, she didn't know it was an option. And Campbell hopes that her influence will open doors for the next generation of athletes, whether in hockey or any other sport.

She said, "I never chose this for myself, but I believed that I could do hard things, and I could overcome the challenges in front of me".

"My advice is to surround yourself with good people and keep your dreams as big as possible and never let yourself build any barriers. Those are the challenges we often face: those we put in front of ourselves".