Jessica Campbell will not return to the Seattle Kraken bench next season, the team announced Thursday.
Campbell’s contract is expiring this summer, and the Kraken are supporting their assistant coach in exploring new opportunities as she receives interest across the league, sources said.
“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 executive vice president and general manager Jason Botterill said in a statement. “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. We respect her decision and believe strongly in her as a coach in this league.”
Campbell made NHL history in 2024 when the Kraken promoted her to assistant coach, making her the first woman to hold a full-time, on-the-bench role in league history.
The Kraken have also left the door open to her returning to the organization in some capacity, as she had a positive experience with the team, sources said.
Campbell, 33, joined Seattle after two seasons with its AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, where she ran the power play and worked closely with forwards as the team reached back-to-back Calder Cup Finals. Campbell was instrumental in the development of Tye Kartye, who went from undrafted to AHL Rookie of the Year to now an NHL regular.
In the NHL, Campbell regularly had one-on-one sessions with Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and Kaapo Kakko, who had a career year after his trade to the Kraken in December.
Campbell built her coaching résumé through skating and skills development, running her own program and training NHL players in the offseason before joining Seattle’s system. She has also worked for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany and was an assistant coach for Germany at the 2022 IIHF Men’s World Championship, becoming the first woman on the coaching staff of a men’s national team at the event.
Campbell is a native of Rocanville, Saskatchewan. She is a former captain at Cornell University and played in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and for the Canadian national team.
Seattle entered the NHL as an expansion franchise in 2021 and is still working to establish stability early in its existence. The team is already on its third head coach as Lane Lambert replaced Dan Bylsma ahead of this past season. Seattle has made the Stanley Cup playoffs once, in 2023, which led team CEO Tod Leiweke to give an impassioned news conference earlier this month. Though the coaching staff last season was viewed as a bright spot, Leiweke recognized the challenges the franchise has faced in building a team.
“It’s not acceptable,” Leiweke said, “and we’re committed to fixing it.”
