This story is part of The Sun’s 2025 NCAA Hockey supplement. To view the rest of the supplement, click here.
It was the opening night of the Seattle Kraken’s 2024-2025 season. As the lights dimmed and skates hit the ice, Jessica Campbell ’14 took her place behind the bench as a newly minted assistant coach and readied to help the Kraken defeat the St. Louis Blues.
Among the 17,151 fans in attendance were two Cornellians —Jill Saulnier ’15 and Alyssa (Gagliardi) Sleasman ’14 — teammates of Campbell’s when she played on East Hill.
On Oct. 8, Campbell became the first woman to coach behind the bench at an NHL game. While many hockey fans are only just now learning about Campbell, those who knew her during her time at Cornell have been long aware of the skills that allowed Campbell to break barriers.
In conversations with Campbell’s former teammates, coaches, and classmates, one word about her time at Cornell stands out: leader.
“Jess was a born leader,” said former teammate Jill Saulnier ’15, currently a forward on the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. “She was a force. She was the fastest player, by far, and just a leader the way she carried herself in the gym and on the ice.”
Yet Campbell’s biggest attribute was not evident on the ice nor in the weightroom.
“More importantly, off the ice she was someone you wanted to be around, because you knew if you were around her you were going to be the best version of yourself,” Saulnier, who has known Campbell for 17 years, said. “That's how she carried herself all through [her time at] Cornell.”
Alyssa (Gagliardi) Sleasman ’14 — Campbell’s close friend and co-captain at Cornell — echoed Saliener’s assessment.
“She’s going to do whatever it takes to push the group forward, but still maintain a level of care where everyone knows that they’re cared about and that they are important pieces in the puzzle,” Sleasman said. “I think that's something you see when you see her in interviews and stuff today, she talks about that [care] at the NHL level, stuff that she was incredibly good at as a leader during her time playing as well.”
Even from the time she was getting recruited to Cornell, Campbell’s strong character was clear.
“She was somebody that we thought would not only lead on the ice but off the ice,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.
On the ice, Campbell was a force. The forward scored four goals in just her second game in a Cornell sweater, and went on to total 26 points in her freshman campaign. Though she missed playing in the ECAC final with an injury, Campbell’s +22 plus/minus rating on the season demonstrated her importance to the Red en route to its second straight conference title.
Cambell’s sophomore season was her worst from a production standpoint, but one of the Saskatchewan native’s biggest games as a Cornellian came in the postseason, scoring the first goal and assisting on the last in the Red’s 8-7 triple-overtime win over Boston University in the NCAA Tournament.
As an upperclassman, Campbell’s on-ice impact was undeniable. Her 16 goals in her junior season were a career-best and second-most on the team. That season, Campbell also scored the game-winning goal in the 2013 ECAC championship against rival Harvard.
“We just stuck to our game plan and didn’t really shy away from that from the start,” Campbell told The Sun after that game. “We knew the goal was going to come when we needed it, but we really established our game on them and forced them to try to keep up with us the whole time, and it worked out for us in the end.”
Wearing the captain’s ‘C’ for Cornell as a senior, Campbell had her best season in Ithaca. Posting 22 assists and 36 points, Campbell led the Red to its fourth ECAC title, three of which came during her time at Cornell.
While Campbell had many impressive on-ice attributes, her speed stands out.
“She had such a gift for speed that she was a really valued member in terms of on-ice impact,” Sleasman said.
Derraugh — who has coached over a dozen future pros during his 19 seasons behind the bench at Cornell — agreed.
“The first thing that always jumped out about Jess when you watched her play was her explosiveness,” Derraugh said. “She was just such an explosive skater and created so much excitement when she jumped on the ice, just a lot of energy, and just a real powerful player [who] had a real strong skill set.”
Eventually, it was Campbell’s speed that would attract the attention of professional players. In 2019 — after her playing days in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League and for the Canadian national team — Campbell opened a power-skating business in British Columbia which attracted multiple NHLers when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the league in 2020. After the pandemic had subsided, she journeyed to Europe, coaching in Sweden and Germany. Then, in 2022, Campbell was hired as an assistant coach with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Seattle Kraken’s minor league affiliate, becoming the first woman to coach in the American Hockey League. After two seasons, Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma was hired by the Kraken and brought Campbell with him to the pros.
While Campbell’s skating may have gotten her foot through the coaching door, it was her off-ice personality that has allowed her to excel. A hard work ethic, care for the team and effective communication are all skills that a good coach has, and were all present in Cambell off the ice during her time at Cornell.
Saulnier — who met Campbell as a 15-year-old when they were teammates on the Canadian U18 national team and credits Campbell for her coming to Cornell — recognized that the way Campbell carried herself off the ice made her an effective leader.
“She did everything with 100 percent of who she was, and that’s why she was such a good leader and such a good captain,” Saulnier said. “When you saw her and you saw how hard she worked and you saw how dedicated she was to the team, you wanted to be like that, and you wanted to work hard for her, and I think that’s why she was such an amazing leader.”
According to Derraugh, it was that hard work that led her to being selected as a captain her senior year.
“She’s somebody who works very hard to get better,” Derraugh said. “So not only was she a leader in her actions and her work ethic and that side of things, but also, she had the confidence to speak up in the dressing room and the girls, they looked up to her.”
Another reason that explains why Campbell made a great leader at Cornell and is coaching in the NHL is how she treated or those around her. Dr. Benjamin Horowitz ’14 covered Campbell during part of her time in Ithaca for The Sun, and remembers how easy Campbell made it to cover the team.
“I definitely remember her and Jill [Saulnier] being very accessible. They were very accommodating and very happy to do interviews,” Horowitz said. “They weren’t cutting me short or appearing uninterested, they were happy to do it, they made themselves available. … I definitely appreciated that from the reporter’s end.”
For Sleasman, Campbell was the ultimate leader because of how much she cared for her teammates.
“She’s so loyal and she has such a strong ability to empathize and connect with people. I think as we took on leadership roles later in our Cornell career, that was something that just was super apparent,” said Sleasman. “She knows herself really well, so it allows her to just be super authentic in terms of her leadership.”
That care paid off. Throughout her time at Cornell, the Red was consistently one of the best teams in the nation, not only due to skill but also because of the team’s chemistry. That chemistry is in part a credit to Campbell’s leadership.
“It was a very strong team camaraderie,” Horowitz said. “I would ask them questions and it always came back to them crediting their teammates for the success they were having. Those years [it] seemed like a really tight group of players.”
While Campbell had an immeasurable impact on those around her in Ithaca, Cornell also had a big impact on her. In the classroom, Campbell was a communication major, which she credits with preparing her to effectively relay information to players today.
“I’ve heard her in interviews say that she's used skills that she’s learned in her communication courses to teach and I've heard the NHL players and others say that she’s very concise and clear in her messaging and that they appreciate that from her,” said Derraugh.
Derraugh himself has had a major impact on Campbell. In an interview with NHL.com, she referred to him as “the best coach [she] ever had” while complementing his communication skills. The two are still in touch over 10 years after Campbell’s graduation; Campbell has Derraugh as a resource as she moves through the professional coaching ranks.
While Cornell has already left its mark on Campbell, she continues to give back to the school and its women’s hockey program. She was back in Ithaca for senior weekend this year — when the Red captured its seventh ECAC regular season title — and narrated the team’s playoff hype video.
“It’s our time to show what Big Red hockey is made of: relentless grit, determination, and unwavering heart,” Campbell said in the video.
According to those who knew her best when she was in Ithaca, Campbell embodied those values as a Cornellian and has used them to get to the barrier-breaking place she is today.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
