The Washington Capitals and Seattle Kraken are set to make history Thursday night. Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell and Capitals video coach Emily Engel-Natzke will become the first female coaches in NHL history to play against each other when their teams face off for the first time this season.
Both coaches have already broken barriers on their own. Engel-Natzke became the first women to hold a full-time coaching job in the NHL when the Capitals brought her to Washington as a video coach in 2022. This season, Campbell became the first woman to coach from an NHL bench, serving as an assistant coach for the Kraken. (Though a member of the Caps’ coaching staff, Engel-Natzke neither works behind the bench nor holds the ‘assistant coach’ title.)
Ahead of Thursday’s game, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery highlighting the careers of both coaches and their importance to the sport.
“It’s phenomenal,” he told the Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson. “It’s so impressive what they’ve accomplished in their careers — Em being the first coach at this level in the NHL and then Jessica being the first on-bench coach. It’s great, not only paving the way for future women to be able to assume those roles, but just what they’ve been able to do in this male-dominated industry.
“To show their skill set and how they can perform the duties at the highest level in the world is is really impressive and they should be a) really, really proud, but b) you know what’s coming into the future — of them paving the way for future girls, and girls that look up to them, of what they’ve been able to do in the NHL.”
Engel-Natzke has become a vital part of the Caps’ video team alongside assistant coach Brett Leonhardt, with Carbery praising the pair earlier this month for telling him to make “arguably a game-changing” offside challenge against the New York Rangers.
Campbell, a former player for the Calgary Inferno in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League, has used her position behind the bench to bring more women into hockey. Since joining the Kraken, she’s signed jerseys for fans during warmups and even exchanged friendship bracelets with a young girl.
She has also lent her support to the Professional Women’s Hockey League, now in its second season. When the PWHL played at the Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena earlier this month, Campbell announced the Boston Fleet’s starting lineup in the locker room before dropping the game’s ceremonial first puck.
Though the Capitals have yet to face Campbell at the NHL level, several of their players have already seen what she can do behind the bench. Before joining the Kraken, Campbell served as assistant coach for the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds from 2022 to 2024. She helped coach the Firebirds to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals, where they faced Hershey Bears rosters that included Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, Ethen Frank, and Dylan McIlrath, all now with the Caps.
