SEATTLE — Jessica Campbell will become the first woman to work on the bench of an NHL franchise after the Seattle Kraken hired her as an assistant coach Wednesday.

Campbell has spent the past two seasons working as an assistant coach for Seattle’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley alongside Coach Dan Bylsma, who was hired in late May to take over the head job with the Kraken. There were immediate questions about whether Campbell would be making the move with Bylsma to Seattle.

She will be breaking through another barrier for women in hockey. Emily Engel-Natzke was hired by the Washington Capitals in 2022 as video coach, making her the first woman with a full-time assistant role in the league.

Now, there will be a woman on the bench.

“During our tenure in Coachella Valley, I saw firsthand Jessica’s commitment to player development,” Bylsma said. “Her ability to establish relationships with her players, specifically Tye Kartye, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans, was an important factor in this hire. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with her at the NHL level.”

Campbell was a decorated player in the NCAA, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and Canada’s women’s national team, with whom she won silver at the 2015 world championship.

With the exception of a short stint with the Malmo Redhawks in Sweden in 2019-20, she hung up her skates in 2017 and had become highly regarded as a skating coach when she joined Coachella Valley in 2022. She had also worked as an assistant coach for Germany during the 2022 IIHF World Championships.

The 32-year-old native of Rocanville, Saskatchewan, was the first full-time female assistant coach in the AHL when she was hired by Coachella Valley before the start of its first season. She also had a one-game stint as an assistant on the Kraken bench for a preseason game against Calgary last September.

But having a woman on the bench as a coach has been an area where the NHL has lagged behind the NBA and NFL.

The NHL Coaches Association launched a Female Coaches Development Program in 2021 with the goal of growing the pool of available candidates.

Even before joining the league in 2021, the Kraken were at the forefront of giving women opportunities in hockey operations. Current assistant general manager Alexandra Mandrycky was one of the first front-office hires made by the franchise in 2018 as director of hockey administration and was part of the group that led the search for a general manager that ended with the hire of Ron Francis.

Namita Nandakumar was hired in 2020 and is a senior analyst in hockey operations.

PANTHERS: Anton Lundell and the Florida Panthers have agreed to a six-year, $30 million contract, one ensuring that the Stanley Cup champions have all eight of their leading scorers back to defend their title.

Lundell was a restricted free agent. He had 13 goals and 22 assists in 78 games for the Panthers this past regular season, and his production was even better in the playoffs – with 17 points in 24 games along the way to the Cup.

RED WINGS: The raiding of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers continued with the Detroit Red Wings signing winger Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million.

Tarasenko, 32, is the sixth player from Florida’s Game 7 lineup to leave in free agency.

He joins three-time champion Patrick Kane on the Red Wings as they try to end a franchise-worst playoff drought at eight seasons. Kane re-signed for $4 million with $2.5 million in additional incentives.