Color of Hockey: Guest coaches get taste of NHL at development camps

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Lennie Childs, an assistant coach for Union College's NCAA Division I men's hockey team, who was a guest coach at the Seattle Kraken development camp through an NHL Coaches' Association program to help increase diversity in hockey's coaching ranks.

Lennie Childs got a taste of the Seattle Kraken's coaching culture quickly -- and very early.

Childs, an assistant coach for Union College's NCAA Division I men's hockey team, found the Kraken organization's coaches and hockey staff hard at work working out in the gym at 5 a.m. each morning ahead of the players at Seattle's development camp last week.

"(Kraken sports science and performance consultant) Gary Roberts is crushing the bike. He's been on it for a while," Childs said. "Their head strength guy from (American Hockey League affiliate) Coachella Valley in there working. Their two strength guys from Seattle are in there. Pretty much every assistant coach is in there working out. I might need to take a day off just to reset the body. I haven't worked out like that since I played."

Childs was a guest coach at the camp as part of an NHL Coaches' Association mentorship effort to help increase diversity in professional hockey's coaching ranks.

Childs attended the camp through the coaches' association's BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Coaches Program. He was joined by Katelyn Parker, Kraken youth hockey player development coach, who is a member of the NHLCA's Female Coaches Development Program.

Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said Parker and Childs provided energy and insight at the camp, which was held July 1-5 at Kraken Community Iceplex.

"The diversity of hockey is continuing to grow," Hakstol said. "I've followed the program the last year or two. I think it's extremely important. I think it's a wonderful two-way street. The fact that we have two good young coaches that are coming and hanging out and spending time with us and, hopefully, learning some new things and maybe bringing some new things to the table to us is outstanding."

Seattle is among 12 NHL teams that have selected guest coaches from the NHLCA's BIPOC and Female Coaches Development programs to work at their development camps.

Shelly Picard, a Long Island University women's hockey assistant and a member of the United States women's Olympic hockey team that won the silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Games, and Chelsea Walkland, an assistant for Colgate's women's team, were selected by the Buffalo Sabres.

Perry Wilson, a goalie coach consultant for the University of Windsor women's hockey team and the goalie coach for the 2009 Canada women's national under-22 team, and University of Western Ontario women's coach Candice Moxley, worked at Chicago Blackhawks development camp.

Princeton University women's coach Cara Morey was a guest coach at the Philadelphia Flyers development camp for the third straight year. Leon Hayward, an assistant coach with the men's team at the University of St. Thomas, an NCAA Division I program in St. Paul, Minnesota, will work his second consecutive development camp with the New Jersey Devils this week, joined by Northeastern University assistant women's coach Lindsay Berman.

Alyssa Gagliardi, skill and player development coach for Maine of the ECHL and an assistant for Neumann University's NCAA Division III men's team, will be a guest coach at Carolina Hurricanes camp this week.

Alfie Michaud, an assistant coach for the University of Maine's men's hockey team, coached at Arizona Coyotes camp.

St. Thomas women's assistant coach Bethany Brausen worked at Boston Bruins camp; Kim Weiss, associate coach of Maryland in the North American Hockey League, and Ohio State University women's assistant Kelsey Cline participated in Colorado Avalanche camp; Sydney Baldwin, who won the national championship as a player with the University of Minnesota women's team in 2015 and 2016, was selected by the Nashville Predators; Kori Cheverie, a coach for the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association last season and a 2022 Beijing Olympics gold medalist with Canada's women's team, worked the Pittsburgh Penguins camp; and Allie LaCombe, co-founder, assistant director and coach of the Nashville Warriors hockey club, was guest coach at Vancouver Canucks camp.

Hired by Union in August of 2022, Childs is one of two Black men coaching in NCAA Division I hockey; Hayward is the other. Childs also is one of two Black hockey coaches at Union.

Olivia Soares, a former assistant for Colby College's NCAA Division III women's team and a former Ohio State women's team captain, was hired by Union as an assistant for its Division I women's team shortly before Childs was hired the same month.

The Kraken chose Childs to be a guest coach after an exhaustive research and interview process that began with assistant general manager Alexandra Mandrycky.

"We had a 30-minute phone call and then followed up with another Zoom call, and they did their homework," Childs said. "They talked to their scouts to see if they knew me, they did research on my career and then I had an hour phone call with Tim Ohashi, the head video coach here in Seattle, and Jeff Tambellini, director of player development, and they grilled me for like an hour -- my philosophy, my thought process, how I develop.

"It was definitely detail-oriented, and they didn't want to bring just anyone in here. They wanted someone that meshed well with their organization. They're high-energy, I mean just the gym workouts … it's literally, 'We're here to get better and get ourselves better before we get our players better.'"

Childs, a 31-year-old Silver Spring, Maryland native, coached in the United States Hockey League and United States Premier Hockey League, and was a forward for Concordia University in NCAA Division III from 2012-16. He said he's bringing a bloated binder of knowledge from Hakstol and his assistants back to Union's campus in Schenectady, New York.

"Dave Hakstol gave me 30 minutes of his full, undivided attention, 1-on-1, impromptu, just talking about his philosophy of game-day prep, showing me his iPad. I won't ever forget that in my career," Childs said, before praising the Kraken assistants who worked with him at the camp. "Jay Leach went through about an hour of defense and video with me. … Dave Lowry, who's their penalty-kill coach, went through PK video with me. Paul McFarland gave me 45 minutes twice just talking about his offensive mentality, what they work on, the things that make them a little bit different."

Childs said he left Seattle with a better understanding of what it takes to help make players better and what it takes to coach in the NHL.

"I'm definitely a striver," he said. "I want to reach the highest level of everything I'm doing. My first thought was, hey, the NHL, not that it's out of reach, but it's a different pool of players. I now know what it takes a bit more, and I now know what coaches look like at the next level."

Photos: Seattle Kraken