Kim Weiss is breaking barriers with the Colorado Eagles: ‘She’s the glue’
LOVELAND — The Maryland Black Bears were a relatively young franchise in the North American Hockey League in March 2023, but they were in the midst of their first division title chase with a three-game weekend looming and just one problem.
Their head coach and general manager, Clint Mylymok, was sick and would not be behind the bench. That meant associate head coach Kim Weiss was in charge of the Tier II junior team that weekend.
“Coach Kim had to take over as the primary coach. We won all three games that weekend and we must have outscored them like 18-1,” said Kareem El-Bashir, a forward on that Black Bears team and now a freshman at Army West Point. “It was absolutely ridiculous. That just goes to show that she is an amazing coach. She knew what she was doing and knew how to get the most out of us in a way where she brought out the confidence in her players.
“We were all like, ‘Oh, head coach is out, how is this going to go?’ And it was just an absolutely seamless transition. That was one of the best weekends I had with the Black Bears.”
Seamless transitions are a theme for Weiss, who has become a barrier-breaking coach with the Colorado Eagles. Weiss was hired as the Eagles’ video coach ahead of last season, a role she had never had before.
On Jan. 16, Weiss was promoted to full-time assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche’s American Hockey League affiliate. She joined Jessica Campbell of the Seattle Kraken as the second woman in a full-time coaching position at the NHL or AHL levels.
“It was a game day and our GM, Kevin McDonald, usually comes up (to Loveland) for games,” Weiss said. “So he came by my desk and he said, ‘I’ve got to talk to you for a second.’ I had no idea that it was coming, and I honestly felt like I was getting called into the principal’s office. I thought it was going to be something not good. Then he was like, ‘We think you’ve done a great job, and we want to change your title since you’re doing a lot more with the team.’
“It is a really great feeling just to have that work that you’ve been putting in for a year and a half, get kind of reaffirmed.”
Weiss, 36, has always wanted to be a coach. She didn’t set out to shatter glass ceilings.
It just sort of happened along the way to becoming a rising star in the industry.
“It’s just been a great experience,” Eagles captain Jayson Megna said. “She’s the first female coach that I’ve had and it’s been awesome. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
‘Very calm and direct’
Weiss was an accomplished player, a two-year captain for Trinity College, a Division III program in Hartford, Conn. She got into coaching pretty quickly after college with the Washington Pride, a AAA junior girls’ team.
“I was fortunate enough to be coached by a lot of great men growing up as a kid,” Weiss said. “Then, in college, was the first time I was coached by a woman. … I love the game so much, and I want to be around hockey. If you can be on a team, it’s a lot more fun being in the game that way. I think I always kind of knew this was going to be my path in some way.”
While working for the Pride, someone from Landon School, a private high school that played out of the same rink, approached her about helping out with their boys’ hockey team. So Weiss pulled double duty for several years.
The Black Bears are based in Potomac, Md., which is Weiss’ hometown. When they arrived as an NAHL expansion franchise, Weiss started working with the players as a skills coach before Mylymok hired her as an assistant and after one season, promoted her to associate head coach.
“Very kind. Very calm and direct,” El-Bashir said of Weiss’ coaching style. “It was almost like a good cop, bad cop kind of thing. She was a coach that would help calm you down, remove the frustration and just get to the actual issue with a play. Just what happened with a play, and this is what I can fix.”
Weiss’ path to men’s professional hockey started with the NHL Coaches Association. Lindsay Pennal, the executive director of the NHLCA, started a networking program for women who wanted to be coaches. Pennal asked NHL teams to nominate two local women for the program, and the Washington Capitals chose Weiss.
A couple of years later, Pennal pushed NHL teams to bring members of the program and do more than just “check a box” but actually create relationships. Weiss interviewed with three teams, and the Avalanche offered her an opportunity.
Weiss came to the Avs’ summer development camp as a guest coach in 2023. She shadowed the team during a road game in Boston because that year she was an assistant coach back at her alma mater in Hartford.
After a second development camp in Denver in 2024, the Eagles had an opening for a video coach. A year and a half later, she again quickly earned a promotion.
“It’s huge for her. She deserves it,” Eagles forward Tye Felhaber said. “It’s hard work in the American League, just the road trips and going through the grind, as they call it. But she’s been awesome, and everybody was just super happy for her.”
‘Her work ethic is off the charts’
Weiss learned of her promotion about a week before it was officially announced. She actually spent a game on the bench just before the announcement, because fellow assistant Derek Army was sick, so she filled in.
That was just another moment when Weiss, who quickly became a jack-of-all-trades for the Eagles, was able to help out a team fighting for a Pacific Division title.
“A lot of what she was doing, she was an assistant coach,” Eagles head coach Mark Letestu said. “It was almost an injustice that she was just listed as a video coach because I had her running skates and running optionals and doing pre-scouts. She’s taken on a little bit more responsibility, so the video coach title just didn’t fit anymore. Her role is very similar. Now it’s my job now that she’s been promoted and taken on more to find more to continue her growth as a coach.”
Letestu didn’t hire Weiss — Aaron Schneekloth did. But after the Eagles had a successful 2024-25 season, he took a job with the Kraken and now works on Seattle’s staff next to Campbell.
Weiss had a bit of consternation, given that she didn’t know Letestu, while Schneekloth and her had devised a plan to help her develop as a coach. That concern was short-lived.
This is Letestu’s first time working with a woman on a coaching staff, but when he played for the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, the team’s goaltender was Shannon Szabados, who went on to win two gold medals and a silver for Canada at the Winter Olympics.
“I came into a locker where I don’t know anybody,” Letestu said. “I didn’t bring somebody with me, like some coaches do. I’ve got to learn every coach in that room. And right away … she’s the glue. She doesn’t necessarily get on the ice at all times, but when we do things as a staff, it’s a quartet. She has as much opinion and input. She keeps us honest. She can give about as much (expletive) as she can take in there.
“It was a natural decision to make sure that she was named and given the title that matched the responsibilities that she had. I think that was really important.”
That day, when the Avalanche and Eagles officially announced the move, was a hectic one for Weiss. She had a friend coming to town, and just trying to find flight information on her phone while driving to the airport proved a challenge because she kept getting notifications about messages from friends, family and former players.
There was more attention on Weiss and the Eagles after the announcement from around the hockey world, but it was also business as usual at the rink, beyond her players being excited for a deserved promotion.
“I think our group makes it easy,” Weiss said. “They treat me with respect. Both our coaching staff and our players, everyone treats me the way I’d want to be treated, and hopefully the way that I treat them.
“I think when you first come into a group, that’s when you feel that pressure. I’ve done it now four times on the men’s side – acclimating to a new team and a new group. That’s when you feel that pressure, because a lot of these players and coaches have never worked with or been coached by a woman. Once they realize it’s really not all that different, I think the pressure kind of subsides a bit.”
Megna is nine months younger than Weiss, and AHL game No. 600 was Saturday night for the Eagles. He’s played for five AHL teams and logged 204 NHL games across five NHL clubs. Felhaber is only 27, but has also played for five AHL clubs.
Both have seen and experienced a lot in professional hockey. What was it like for them to have Weiss join the team?
Another seamless transition.
“I mean, you never know what to expect, I guess, but she fit in right away,” Megna said. “We had our start of the year party, and she was telling jokes and just kind of seamlessly integrated into our team and our group. It’s been a fun perspective and different experience that I think we can all share in. She’s done a fantastic job, and we really enjoy having her around every day.
“She’s very detailed, and she knows what she’s talking about. She’s very driven. Her work ethic is off the charts. She does so much stuff for us behind the scenes, so I think she gains a lot of respect that way.”
Added Felhaber: “I think it was pretty easy for everybody, just kind of with her personality and how she relates to the guys. She’s pretty funny, just with her one-liners and stuff. She’s just done a great job just coming in. That’s intimidating I think, just because it’s still early on in sports with women becoming coaches in men’s hockey. But I think the transition was pretty easy for her and it was definitely easy for us.”
Weiss didn’t set out to be a men’s coach, but she’s now a full-time assistant with one of the best teams in the second-best men’s league in the world. Where can this career go for her? As far as she wants it to, according to Letestu.
For now, Weiss is focused on helping the Eagles try to win the Pacific and gear up for a run at the Calder Cup. Campbell made the Calder Cup Final twice as an assistant with the Coachella Valley Firebirds before she was promoted to the NHL when Dan Bylsma got the Kraken job.
When Weiss was a kid, she didn’t know that women could even be a coach, let alone on the men’s side of the sport. Now, there are young girls all over the continent who know what she has accomplished and look up to her.
“It’s cool, because I didn’t have that,” Weiss said. “It’s been amazing to see the progression of the women’s game and women’s opportunities in hockey. I remember coaching kids when I was 22, 23 years old. They were like, ‘Oh, I’ve never been coached by a girl.’ I had that experience at 18, instead of at eight.
“I just think it’s really special for them to see that. If this is something that you love and you want to do, there’s an opportunity for you to do it.”
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