Jessica Campbell was working with the Swedish Hockey League’s Malmö Redhawks during the 2019-20 season, serving as a skating development coach for the junior team, when the Redhawks’ affiliated women’s program asked her if she’d consider lacing up the skates again.
The women’s club was hoping to win Division 1 — the second tier of women’s hockey in Sweden now called Damettan — to advance to the series that would allow it to move up to the top league, the Swedish Women’s Hockey League. The club thought Campbell, who had ample collegiate and professional playing experience, could help on the ice.
Campbell had been on the coaching side the previous few years. She hadn’t played competitively in a bit, but she was committed to the organization and ultimately agreed. The situation was fitting for Campbell.
At the core of her hockey career, Campbell is a former player first. And after four seasons at Cornell, where she earned a degree in communications, Campbell became a distinguished skills coach, which was why she was in Sweden to begin with.
Now, Campbell is working to establish herself as a team coach at the professional level — and her next step will be as a coach for the New York Rangers’ 2022 development camp from July 11-15.
Campbell’s four goals and one assist in six qualification games wasn’t enough to help the Redhawks achieve their goal. It was, however, a quintessential display of what makes Campbell a triple threat in the hockey coaching space.
“They were handing me the clipboard sometimes, too,” she told The Post with a laugh in a recent phone interview.
Campbell’s Redhawks cameo was the end of her playing days. Her primary business became power skating and skill development. In the past few offseasons, Campbell has worked with several NHL players — including the Islanders’ Mat Barzal, the Canadiens’ Shea Weber and the Predators’ Dante Fabbro — in four-to-eight week development programs.
Campbell joined the USHL’s Tri-City Storm development program, and spearheaded the Windy City Storm Girl’s Hockey program in Chicago this past season. She also served as an assistant coach and skills coach for the Deutsche Eishockey Liga’s (DEL) Nurnberg Ice Tigers. She then became the first woman to serve on the coaching staff of a national team, participating in the IIHF Men’s World Championship with Germany this spring.
Antti Miettinen, the Rangers’ player development assistant, came across Campbell in a news article about her time in the DEL. The two met during the World Championship tournament in Finland, where Campbell also was introduced to Rangers assistant general manager Ryan Martin. The rest was history, as Campbell gears up to become the first woman in the history of the Original Six franchises to serve as a development camp coach.
“We’re certainly excited to have her,” president and general manager Chris Drury said of the 30-year-old on a conference call with reporters shortly after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs. “You never know in the offseason schedule what is going to match up and not match up with peoples’ schedules. Her coaching résumé and playing résumé certainly speak for themselves. I think she’s going to bring a lot to our group for that week, and we’re excited to have her in Tarrytown.”
Campbell said she is prepared to contribute at the development camp, run by the Rangers director of player development Jed Ortmeyer, however the team see fit. But her area of specialty is skill development. Creating a skill session that’s NHL caliber and position specific is what she does best. She said she hopes to run skating and skill sessions for the prospects to get an idea of what they’re going to need to be doing at the NHL level to be successful.
Having an Ivy League education in communication separates Campbell from many in the same position. She understands the importance of being articulate and detail oriented during presentations, as well as having an ability to make concise points that help connect the dots for players.
Campbell said she is a firm believer in creating safe spaces to fail and to grow, but her personal connection to the game from her playing days gives her even deeper insight into the players she works with.
“When I entered into the space, transitioning from playing to coaching four years ago now, I think the most seamless piece for me was understanding what players wanted,” Campbell said. “Because I was coming right out of playing. That’s no different than the pros. I get what it feels like. Hockey is hockey. Yes, maybe the female’s game and the men’s game have fundamental differences, let’s say. But, ideally, at the end of the day, the men’s game is going a lot toward the direction of the women’s game in terms of puck possession and skill based. And there’s contact in the women’s game.
“So the skills that are now making players successful and most impactful at the NHL level are also things that on the female side were very relevant my entire career. When it comes to the actual coaching now, I think the communication piece in my background — my education — I spent a lot of time in the classroom learning and developing my communication skills.”
Growing up in a household that she said was rooted in hockey, Campbell dreamt of playing in the NHL. As a power forward, whose speedy skating and offensive skills were her strengths, Campbell played competitively with boys until she was 16 growing up in Saskatchewan. She then served as captain at Cornell her senior year before playing three seasons for the Calgary Inferno of the now defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
Campbell recalled the moment she realized her hockey career was taking the plunge into coaching. It was during her time with the Redhawks in Malmö, where coincidentally she had won a silver medal with Team Canada in the women’s World Championships in 2015.
Campbell hopes to coach in the NHL full-time one day. Her first big step toward realizing that goal will be next month with the Rangers.
“I think the value that females are now bringing into the game in whatever role, whether it’s management, media, you know, the perspective is different,” Campbell said. “It’s a different voice, a different lens of looking at things. For me, being on the coaching side and being more in the trenches and behind the scenes in that space, close at hand to the players’ development, I’m excited for the opportunity.
“Obviously, I know I’m representing a lot of others who have the same goals and aspirations. There’s fewer of us than there is more, but at the same time, I think we’re going to down the right path.”
