Eleven women are currently serving as coaches at NHL Development Camps.
Eleven women are currently coaching at NHL Development Camps this week across the league. Those women include Kori Cheverie, who was recently named a guest coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, not only for their development camp, but for this coming season as well.
In addition to Cheverie in Pittsburgh, Sydney Baldwin (Buffalo Sabres), Bethany Brausen (Boston Bruins), Kelsey Cline (Colorado Avalanche), Allie LaCombe (Vancouver Canucks), Cara Morey (Philadelphia Flyers), Nadine Muzerall (Columbus Blue Jackets), Katelyn Parker (Seattle Kraken), Michelle Picard (Buffalo Sabres), Chelsea Walkland (Buffalo Sabres), and Kim Weiss (Colorado Avalanche) are all coaching at NHL Development Camps this week.
One of those coaches was professional hockey player Sydney Baldwin, who spent the past four seasons with the PHF's Minnesota Whitecaps, is coaching with the Nashville Predators this week.
"As a player and a coach, I've always had an eye for attention to detail and defensive skills," Baldwin said in a Nashville Predators news release. "I was a defenseman as well, so I think that's where my mind always is naturally."
Baldwin is focusing on defenders to improve their skating and edgework, puck protection, retrievals, and other skills according to the Sabres.
For Chelsea Walkland, who played NCAA Division I hockey at Robert Morris before spending a decade coaching at NCAA programs including Robert Morris and Colgate University, getting the opportunity to coach with the Buffalo Sabres, who she grew up watching, was a "surreal" experience.
"I'd say, honestly, pretty surreal," Walkland said in a Buffalo Sabres news release.
"I grew up in Rochester, New York, so family's diehard Sabres fans, Rochester Amerks fans. So, to be invited to this organization and see just how first class and how welcoming it's been, I'd say pretty surreal. I keep having to pinch myself when I kind of look around it and take it all in."
While the experience helps elite women's coaches continue to build their resume and gain skills, it's also helping the best men's hockey players learn from not just knowledgeable players, but talented teachers of the game.
Soon, one of these women may break the NHL's coaching gender barrier, becoming the first woman to stand on an NHL bench as a coach.