Report: Seattle Kraken assistant Jessica Campbell will not return to bench in 2026-27

The first female assistant coach behind the bench in NHL history is on the market for a new job. Seattle Kraken assistant Jessica Campbell will not return to the team’s bench next season, according to ESPN NHL insider Emily Kaplan.

Campbell, whose contract expires this summer, is free to seek a coaching job with other NHL teams after this move and has Seattle’s support in doing so, per Kaplan. That said, the Kraken appear to be leaving a door open for Campbell to return to the organization in a new role, Kaplan reported.

Campbell has been in coaching since retiring as a player in 2017. She coached as an assistant for the Coachella Valley Firebirds — the Kraken’s affiliate — beginning in July of 2022. It was then, in July of 2024, that she got her first crack at the NHL, making history. After the promotion, Campbell detailed how the promotion fulfilled a lifelong dream.

“I imagined and dreamed of playing in the NHL because there was no professional women’s league as a young girl and I thought I was going to play in the NHL because I was playing with the boys,” Campbell said in 2024, per ESPN. “Little did I know what wasn’t possible. But I believed it was possible.”

Kraken looking to turn around as a franchise

Founded as a franchise ahead of the 2021-22 season, Seattle has made the postseason just once time in five years. The Kraken made the playoffs in 2023 and reached the second round befroe being knocked out. During Campbell’s two seasons with the Kraken, they went a combined 69-78-17.

The end of this season could not have gone much worse for Seattle. The Kraken were 31-26-9 after beating the Florida Panthers on March 15 and were looking to contend for a playoff berth. But Seattle then lost 13 of its final 16 games, resulting in missing the playoffs.