Rise of women coaches thrills ex-Colonials star
The Arizona Coyotes’ hiring of Dawn Braid as their skating coach this week resonated with former Robert Morris University goaltender Brianne McLaughlin. It also was coincidental. “It’s actually funny this happened,” McLaughlin told the Post-Gazette Thursday by phone. “I was working at camp with one of my old teammates from the national team [Molly Engstrom]. She coaches. I coach. We were talking about what we wanted to do with it. It never really crossed our minds to do that.”
It did for Braid, and the result is historic because she is believed to be the first full-time female coach in NHL history. Not only that, all four major pro sports leagues in North America now have had female assistant coaches after Braid
was elevated from her previous, part-time role.
Braid also had worked as a skating consultant with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames.
McLaughlin, who set the all-time NCAA career saves record with the Colonials with 3,809, earned two silver medals while playing for the U.S. women’s national team.
While neither she nor her U.S. teammates will be in a hurry to relive the goldmedal loss against Canada, it does show how interest in women’s hockey has risen, McLaughlin said. And the women who’ve taken U.S. women’s hockey to the mainstream are getting older.
“I think now is a perfect time for it,” McLaughlin said. “The girls that really played at that level and can talk hockey and know hockey are getting to that age where they can compete with anyone in the coaching profession. It’s a really cool time for women’s hockey.”
Though she said her Olympic career is over, McLaughlin wouldn’t be surprised if momentum keeps building for women’s hockey, enough that soon Braid will not be alone. McLaughlin, however, said she won’t be next.
She opened a goaltending academy two years ago and recently moved into the RMU Island Sports Center. McLaughlin loves it, but believes she has a lot to learn before she gets to Braid’s level.
“I think that would be a dream for anyone in my shoes or any female coaching anywhere — to get to the highest point that they can in their career,” McLaughlin said.
“That’s a pretty cool position to be in, in the NHL. She certainly has a lot of respect from [other female hockey coaches].”
McLaughlin has enough to worry about. Besides her business, she said she’s planning on playing at least one more year in the National Women’s Hockey League, where she helped lead the Buffalo Beauts to the championship game appearance in the spring.
There’s only four teams in the league, but McLaughlin commutes back and forth between Neville Island and wherever her team is playing that weekend. It’s not easy.
“The first couple weekends I was like, ‘Man, this is going to get old real quick,’ “McLaughlin said. “But I got used to it. I know I feel like I don’t have a real job, which is the key to anyone’s happiness.”
The biggest part of that is coaching. McLaughlin had three players commit to college this past year and feels as if she’s really hitting her stride in the profession. But she knows she has plenty of room to grow and appreciates the trail that Braid has blazed.
“To earn respect right away is hard,” McLaughlin said.
“For a female to do that on the men’s side would probably be even harder. So the fact that she was chosen — it looked like they sought her out for that position — is awesome.”