Coaches breaking barriers

Campbell, Cheverie make NHL history

Jessica Campbell grew up wanting to play in the NHL. Now she’s on the verge of finding a place in the league behind the bench.

“I didn’t imagine this path for me. I didn’t see it,” the Coachella Valley Firebirds assistant coach said. “Quite frankly there was no visibility and there weren’t other females doing this work, and so I didn’t know it was possible.”

The 31-year-old from Rocanville, Sask., became the first female fulltime coach in the AHL last season. And, on Monday, she stood behind an NHL bench for the Seattle Kraken in a pre-season game against the Calgary Flames.

After getting a taste of life in the NHL, she’s intent on making it a full-time gig.

“It’s motivating, it’s inspiring,” Campbell said. “The other night was no different, being among the team, within the staff … It just showed me this is where I could get to.”

Campbell stood behind the Seattle bench a day after Kori Cheverie did the same with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Cheverie, recently hired as head coach of Montreal’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team, was a guest coach for the Penguins in a pre-season game against Columbus.

Tennis legend and activist Billie Jean King, who’s also on the board of directors for the newly formed women’s league, applauded Campbell and Cheverie on X, formerly known as Twitter, for “making history.”

Cheverie is hoping their NHL appearances will help break down barriers for women in hockey.

“We’re coaches at the end of the day, we study the game, we watch the video, we coach the players, we understand the game, we’ve played it,” she said. “The only thing that really separates us is male and female.”

Campbell hopes the presence of women in the NHL won’t be the exception in the near future. “Hopefully this topic someday is a boring question or a boring discussion just because there’s so many of us.”

Campbell played in the NCAA and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and for Canada’s women’s national team, with whom she won silver at the 2015 world championship. With the exception of a short stint with the Malmo Redhawks in Sweden in 2019-20, she hung up her skates in 2017. She had a second career as an entrepreneur and started her own business, JC Powerskating, to train skills and skating to top athletes.

The business took off during the pandemic as NHL players — including Shea Weber, Brent Seabrook and Mathew Barzal — sought a way to train amid lockdowns.

“(The NHL clients) went from two guys, to 10 guys, to all of a sudden 20-25 guys,” she said. “I’m running a training camp for the NHL playoffs. “It kind of was my ‘aha’ moment of ‘this is what I want to do.’ I believed that I was bringing something unique to the table, something valuable.”

Campbell took on coaching opportunities in Europe and served as an assistant for Germany’s men’s team at the 2022 world championship. Coachella Valley head coach Dan Bylsma took notice and added her to his staff. The Firebirds made it to the Calder Cup final last season with Campbell managing the offence, power play and skills roles.

Cheverie, 36, was the first woman to be a full-time coach of a U Sports men’s team as an assistant for the Toronto Metropolitan Rams from 2016 to 2021. The She is a member of the NHL coaches association in the female coaches program, which is where she caught the attention of Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan.

“Regardless of who I’m coaching, whether it’s Sidney Crosby or Marie-Philip Poulin, I’m gonna prepare the same way,” Cheverie said.