Coyotes make history by hiring Dawn Braid, the NHL's first full-time female coach
Braid will be the team's full-time skating coach, working with players throughout the organization
By
Chris Peters
•
2 min read
The Arizona Coyotes made history Wednesday as they became the first NHL team to hire a woman as a full-time coach. Dawn Braid, who was the team's part-time skating consultant last season, has been bumped up to full-time skating coach.
While Braid won't be on the bench, her role will prove extremely important to the players, especially the number of high-end prospects the Coyotes will have matriculating to their NHL roster over the next few seasons. As the league continues to get faster and faster, continuing to work on skating development only becomes more crucial.
Before working with the Coyotes, Braid spent time as an independent consultant working with a number of NHL teams including the Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs. She has also been a private skating coach, working with individual players. One of her highest-profile clients was New York Islanders captain John Tavares.
Braid, unavailable to speak with the media Wednesday, released a statement through the team.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity with the Coyotes," said Braid. "I'm looking forward to working with Dave Tippett and his coaching staff and all the great players in the organization.
"It's something that I've wanted to see happen. The fact that they respect what I do enough to name me as a full-time coach, or to name me as the first female coach in the NHL, I take a ton of pride in that. I've worked very hard for this opportunity. It's been going on for years and I just look forward to going even further with it."
Women have been essentially non-existent in hockey operations positions in the NHL, aside from the few part-time skating coaches. Braid helps break through based on her body of work and industry-wide respect for her role in helping players develop better skating habits and technique.
The Coyotes have proven to be an organization keen on thinking outside the box, even if Braid isn't really that far outside given her experience level. But the team has no problem doing things differently from how they've been done. Earlier in the summer, the club fired longtime GM Don Maloney and promoted then 26-year-old John Chayka from assistant general manager to GM. Chayka has already received high marks for some of his maneuvering this offseason.
"Dawn is someone who we feel is at the top of her field so we thought it was imperative to hire her," Chayka said (via azcentral.com). "She's got a great personality and the players work hard for her and respect her knowledge. The bottom line is she gets results, and that's the key thing. Dawn is someone who [coach Dave Tippett] and I respect and we feel that she's going to be a very important asset for us."
Change usually happens slowly, especially in the NHL, but the Coyotes have broken with convention and now Braid has broken a glass ceiling. As more roles become available, and as women's involvement in the game only continues to grow, there should be more opportunities available to women to work in substantial positions in NHL organizations.
As we've seen in other sports, like the Buffalo Bills hiring Kathryn Smith as special teams quality control coach, or the San Antonio Spurs making Becky Hammon an assistant coach, more and more pro clubs are opening their doors to women. There will be more in hockey, too.
Someone has to do it first, though. Braid is as excellent a candidate as any given all that she has already accomplished in her career.
