- Jessica Campbell will not return to the Seattle Kraken after two seasons behind the bench
- Kraken GM Jason Botterill says her contract is up and she wants to look at other coaching jobs around the league
- Read below for the trailblazing path that put her on an NHL bench in the first place
The Seattle Kraken’s coaching staff is losing its most history-making member.
Jessica Campbell, the first woman to work full-time as an NHL assistant coach, will not return to Seattle next season. The team announced Thursday that Campbell wants to explore other coaching opportunities around the league as her current contract expires.
“As Jessica’s current contract expires, she has expressed her desire to explore other coaching roles across the League and we support her in this process,” Kraken general manager Jason Botterill said. “Jessica has been an important member of our coaching staff for the past four years, demonstrating deep knowledge and a unique ability to connect with and develop players.”
Campbell originally joined the organization in July 2022, working as an assistant on the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Kraken’s AHL affiliate. She and head coach Dan Bylsma helped Coachella Valley reach the Calder Cup Final in both her seasons there, losing to the Hershey Bears each time.
When Bylsma got the call to lead the Kraken on May 28, 2024, Campbell came up with him two months later. Her hiring on July 3 broke a barrier nobody had broken before, and her bench debut on opening night that fall made her the first woman to coach an NHL regular-season game:
Bylsma got fired after one season in Seattle. The Kraken kept Campbell on when Lane Lambert took over in June 2025, a real vote of confidence in her work with forwards and the power play.
The team finished 34-37-11 this year, 11 points back of the Kings for the West’s final wild-card spot. Now on the heels of Ron Francis stepping down as Kraken president of hockey ops, Lambert is losing his most prominent assistant too.
Campbell talked about her path to the NHL on Sportsnet’s “After Hours” and what it meant to be first through the door:
She played four years at Cornell, spent time as a pro in Canada and Sweden, and pivoted into skills coaching with a roster of NHL clients before the Kraken came calling. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports there’s already interest in her from around the league.
She made the door, walked through it, and now gets to choose where she goes next.
