Blackhawks’ front office hirings make Kendall Coyne Schofield team’s first female development coach

Kendall Coyne Schofield will serve as a Blackhawks’ development coach in addition to starring on the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times file photo

As a player, Kendall Coyne Schofield has already reached the pinnacle of her career.

But as a coach, her journey officially just began.

The Blackhawks on Monday made Coyne Schofield the franchise’s first-ever female Player Development Coach, headlining several additions to the front office.

The team also hired retired NHL forward Erik Condra as another Player Development Coach, hired Juan Gonzalez as the Rockford IceHogs’ Strength and Conditioning Coach and promoted Meghan Hunter to Director of Hockey Administration.

Coyne Schofield, a 28-year-old Palos Heights native and six-time world champion with the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team, started with the Hawks as a media relations intern in 2014.

She’d more recently served as a community relations liaison for the Hawks — running an all-girls youth hockey program in Chicago known as the “Golden Coynes,” which will continue despite her new position — and tried her hand in broadcasting.

Kendall Coyne Schofield, a 2018 gold-medal winner with the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team, competed in the fastest skater competition at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game.

“I’ve spoken to so many of my now-teammates with the Blackhawks and said it feels finally real,” she said Monday. “It was organic in the way that it happened and I knew I could be an asset in player development, I knew I wanted to get my feet wet, and I knew I could help this team.”

Coyne Schofield said her duties will be diverse, helping train, coach and advise players at various levels of the Hawks’ organization both on- and off-ice. She’ll spend the most time with the IceHogs.

But she’ll also remain an active player with the women’s national team, which will seek to defend its 2018 Olympic gold medal again in 2022. She sees that duality of roles as an advantage

“There’s going to be some funny moments, maybe if I’m telling a player ‘do this’ and then he watches me play and he says, ‘You told me not to do that and you just did it!’” she said. “But I’m still a player, so I’m still in the same shoes that they walk every day. But at the same time, I’m fulfilling that role as their player development coach, which will help them get to the next level.”

Condra played 372 games as a forward for the Senators, Lightning and Stars from 2010 to 2019, retiring from pro hockey just this year.

The 34-year-old Michigan native will join Coyne Schofield as well as fellow ex-NHL players Mark Eaton, Brian Campbell, Yanic Perreault and Chris Kunitz in the Hawks’ development coaching tree.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, previously worked as a strength and conditioning advisor for the USA Hockey National Development Program.

“Adding talented people with diverse and multi-faceted backgrounds like Kendall, Erik and Juan enhances our operations as we assess the changing landscape of hockey at all levels,” general manager Stan Bowman said.

Hunter, an Ontario native and former University of Wisconsin hockey star, previously served as Bowman’s senior assistant. In addition to her new director position, she’ll also now help with amateur scouting.

Coyne Schofield’s hiring and Hunter’s promotion came just a week after the MLB’s Miami Marlins hired the first female GM, Kim Ng, in “Big Four” North American sports history.

“There’s a lot of young girls in this area and beyond that are looking at this and saying, ‘Wait, I can do that too?’” Coyne Schofield said.