Announced today, the Saskatoon Blades welcomed Christine Bumstead as a performance coach for the 2023-24 season, making Bumstead the first woman to be a part of any Blades coaching staff as she joins head coach Brennan Sonne's staff for the upcoming season!
You might wonder how a woman from Winnipeg landed in Saskatoon working with one of U SPORTS' best programs before landing in the WHL, and it came about through hard work at her craft and a little bit of luck. That luck saw her cross paths with then-Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice who suggested that she join the NHL Coaches Association Female Coaches Development Program as one of fifty women across North America who would work in tandem with NHL coaches and personnel.
From there, Bumstead, who was coaching the Pembina Valley Hawks, a U-15 AAA team in Morden, Manitoba where she was teaching, identified a number of potential coaching opportunities with the Huskies being one of them. Steve Kook jumped at the chance to have Bumstead working with his program, stating, "I didn't worry about any of the technical stuff about what her background was or whether she was qualified — it was clearly evident from the beginning that I just had to put her in a spot and let her take some responsibilities."
Bumstead was vital to the program's success in 2022 as she helped the Huskies capture a bronze medal at the U SPORTS National Championship after falling short in the Canada West Final against UBC. The 2022-23 season was another solid campaign for the Huskies as they just missed out on an opportunity to head to Montreal, but it's pretty clear that Christine Bumstead had a positive impact on the Saskatchewan Huskies as an assistant coach.
She'll now take her talents to the WHL's Saskatoon Blades who actually pursued her as a coach thanks to what Brennan Sonne had heard about her.
"She came highly recommended from an NHL coach," Sonne explained in the press conference introducing Bumstead. "We reached out to her, chatted with her and (she) really impressed."
When asked what her role will be with the team as a "performance coach", Sonne had a number of ideas on how Bumstead will contribute, stating, "We're going to use her in a number of different things, whether that's skill drills, practices, eye in the sky, structural things, helping us in-game. There's going to be a number of different things we'll ask of her when we get her."
It should be noted that Bumstead's assistant coach role with the Huskies will remain intact while she works with the Blades, so she'll be behind the bench for the Huskies as they host the U SPORTS National Championship this season. Based on her body of work with the Huskies thus far, I'm quite certain that having Bumstead sticking around as a coach will be a welcomed sight by the players and her colleagues at the University of Saskatchewan.
It needs to be said, though: everything Christine Bumstead has accomplished came from her work ethic and her abilities as a coach. Yes, one can say that Bumstead's break came from her opportunity that she seized with the NHL Coaches Association, but she may not have gotten that opportunity if it wasn't for an NHL coach recognizing her abilities as a young coach.
Make no mistake, though, that it's the work that she has been putting into her craft that continues to open doors for her today, and that's a lesson that she certainly passes on to her players whenever she's on the ice. Hard work is the foundation of Christine Bumstead's success, and her appointment to the Blades is the result of that hard work that has been recognized and recommended by an NHL coach.
Congratulations are in order for Christine Bumstead today, and I'm excited to see where her talents will take her in hockey. From where I'm sitting, it seems like she may soon have her choice of any job at any level of hockey. That trait is the hallmark of a great coach!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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