There Are Still Ceilings

The history of the night wasn't lost on Seattle Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell as she became the first woman to hold an assiatant coaching position on an NHL bench tonight, I'm sure, but she's humble enough to say thanks and remind everyone that the history she made didn't come without many women before her opening doors through which she could walk. Take nothing away from Campbell as she should be proud of making history, but I'm here to advocate that we need more women in higher positions in hockey.

Campbell certainly put her time in at different levels of hockey where she's shown a ton of talent as a coach, and her efforts to improve her skills and knowledge are pretty clear based on her successes. It's that kind of effort, commitment, and dedication that will raise other women into prominent roles in the NHL, and we've seen a handful of female coaches who have been invited to camps to run NHL players through the paces including Kori Cheverie, Christine Bumstead, and Allie LaCombe.

All of those women could be standing on NHL benches right now, and some of them may very well should be. As we know, all of Chicago's Meghan Hunter, New Jersey's Kate Madigan, Vancouver's Émilie Castonguay and Cammi Granato and Toronto's Hayley Wickenheiser hold prominent position in the NHL, and we saw Amanda Kessel promoted this summer by the Pittsburgh Penguins. While none of them have sat in an NHL front office as an NHL general manager yet, it seems the distance in getting to that position is getting shorter and shorter each season.

Before anyone jumps all over me for saying that hockey needs more women as some sort of "diversity, equity and inclusion" idea, I'm advocating for women who have put the time in and deserve a shot. In some cases, these women have worked as hard or harder to break the gender imbalance at the highest levels of hockey than some men have, so why aren't teams hiring the best candidate possible when vacancies are found in management and coaching positions?

ESPN reported last season that "all 32 clubs currently employ women in their hockey operations departments with roles ranging from assistant general managers to scouts, analysts, skating coaches, and player development positions," meaning that women are making impacts when it comes to how teams are built and deployed on the ice. Katerina Wu was featured in the article for her role as senior data scientist for the Penguins, and Miranda McMillan got a few paragraphs for her work as a data analyst for the Montreal Canadiens. Clearly, there are smart, talented women in front offices across the league, so we may not be far from seeing one of them in a GM's chair.

We've seen women make immense strides in broadcasting the game at the NHL with analysts like AJ Mleczko, Jennifer Botterill, and Cheryl Pounder are some of the best analysts in the game, and my hope is we'll see more analysts find their way to NHL sets and broadcast booths. Mleczko, Botterill, and Pounder bring different perspectives to the game based on how all three played the game, and it's often refreshing to hear an opinion that's different when watching the broadcasters discuss NHL news and plays.

Getting those new ideas and different opinions into more front offices and on NHL benches, however, is something we should be striving for, and it seems some of the more experienced members of the NHL's coaching fraternity are open to having the women move into their realm.

"Christine is going to be a great coach. She is one now," Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of Bumstead to The Associated Press. "There's a lot of really intelligent young coaches, some of them are male, some of them are female, and they now have an opportunity that just wasn't there 20 years ago."

"If you’re not willing to change and evolve as a coach, you’re done," Maurice added, before noting "men don't have the market cornered on communication."

What shouldn't be forgotten is that the door is wide open for any of the women mentioned above to take further steps forward after Jessica Campbell wrote her name in NHL history. If another woman joins her as an assistant coach or passes her as a head coach, it can't be understated that Campbell opened that door a little wider just like Nicole Kirnan is doing in the Federal Hockey League, just like Dawn Braid did when she was hired by the Arizona Coyotes, and just like Alyssa Gagliardi is doing in NCAA men's hockey.

Jessica Campbell may have made history tonight, but she won't stop there when there are still so many ceiling that need to be smashed.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!