Blackhawks hire the first female Player Development Coach in team history.

The Chicago Blackhawks have made a monumental announcement. 

On Monday for the first time in the organization's history, the Blackhawks announced the hiring of a female Player Development Coach. The Blackhawks went all out on this one as well as the woman they have hired is none other than Olympic Gold Medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield, a name that may be very familiar to fans of the National Hockey League who tuned in to the 2019 NHL All Star Game. 

She brings an incredible amount of hockey experience and an even more impressive pedigree to the role and thus far the reaction to this hiring has been incredibly positive. Coyne Schofield is an incredible decorated player internationally, having captured a whopping six Gold Medals in her career playing in women's hockey tournaments held by the International Ice Hockey Federation and having captured Olympic Gold at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

In July of 2019 the San Jose Sharks announced that they had added her to their broadcast team, but in my estimation her biggest mark in the NHL came when she was tagged as a replacement for Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon at the NHL All Star game that same year. Her performance in the fastest skater competition, where she finished 7th out of 8 skaters, impressed everyone that was tuning in to the broadcast with Coyne Schofield finishing with a time just 1 second shy of the eventual winner, Oilers captain Connor McDavid.

Coyne Schofield's full title with the Blackhawks will be "Player Development Coach & Youth Hockey Growth Specialist" and it sounds like she is going to have a lot on her plate moving forward. Not only will she be assisting in player development alongside Erik Condra who was also announced as a player development hire by the Blackhawks today, but it sounds like she will also be doing some scouting and will be doing work within the Chicago community as well.

In her role as Youth Hockey Growth Specialist she will be focused on grassroots youth hockey programs and clinics and will continue the implementation of girls hockey programming, a role that she had already played a part in but one that has now been formalized by the team. 

We of course wish her tremendous success in her new role.