How video coaches get hired in pro hockey

Most NHL video coaches got the job by doing video one level down first. The common route runs from a college team, where many started as student managers, to a junior or AHL club as video coach, then to an NHL club as assistant video coach. A few came in from coaching, equipment or even a club’s marketing department, but almost every path we traced includes years of cutting clips for a lower-level team.

What a video coach does during a game

The Minnesota Wild described the work in detail in 2021. One video coach marked the game live so players could watch clips on iPads on the bench and in intermission meetings, and the footage was then filed for practices and special teams meetings. A second video coach checked every opposing zone entry for offside, often from several replay angles, and radioed anything worth challenging to an assistant coach wearing an earpiece. The head coach made the final call on a challenge.

A Canadian Press story on TSN described the same setup across the NHL: an assistant on a headset talks to the video room about possible challenges, and the head coach decides. A wrong challenge costs a two-minute penalty, so the video room has to be right. Rick Tocchet told the Canadian Press that video coaches now have to know the team’s system. In the past, he said, players would just tell the video staff to cut a clip.

That challenge work does not exist in every league. The PWHL dropped the coach’s challenge for the 2025-26 season, and reviews there are now started only by the league’s situation room or the on-ice officials.

The usual route: college, then junior or the AHL

Cody Ward’s path is the clearest example. Columbus named him video coach in July 2026, at 28. His club bio lists a season as video coordinator for Adler Mannheim in Germany in 2014-15, then four years as video coordinator and student manager at Canisius College while he earned a sports management degree. He went straight from Canisius to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves as video coach in 2021-22, the season they won the Calder Cup, then spent four seasons as the San Jose Sharks’ assistant video coach.

Madison Nikkel took a similar line in Pittsburgh. USA Hockey says he was a student manager and video coordinator at Boston College, became video coach for the Penguins’ AHL club in 2016-17, moved up to NHL assistant video coach in 2019-20, and took over as Penguins video coach in June 2022. He was the US men’s video coach at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Olympics.

The Wild’s Ray Sylvester did video and analytics consulting while at Robert Morris University, then worked as video coach for the Charlotte Rush in the USPHL, the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL, and the Iowa Wild in the AHL before Minnesota named him video coach in July 2025.

Others started in Canadian university and junior hockey. Josh Mallory was general manager, then assistant coach and director of analytics, for Brock University’s women’s team, then spent three seasons as the Edmonton Oil Kings’ video coach and hockey operations manager before Ottawa hired him as assistant video coach in 2024. He has a sport management degree and a master’s from Brock. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hired two video coaches from the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs in two years: Ethan O’Rourke in 2025 and Ryan Lennon in 2026. Both also worked Hockey Canada events, and Lennon pre-scouted opponents for Canada at the 2026 World Juniors and Olympics.

The ECHL and inside promotions

Not everyone moves club to club. Cam Briere was the ECHL Maine Mariners’ video coach for four seasons, and their director of hockey operations in his last one, before Columbus hired him as assistant video coach in 2025. In the same Columbus department, Aron Augustitus spent four seasons as video assistant and one as video assistant coach before the club promoted him to video coach.

NHL clubs also hire from their own AHL affiliates. In 2025 the AHL noted that Iowa’s Sylvester moved up to Minnesota, while Hershey’s video coach, Adam Purner, went to the Seattle Kraken. Live openings across the NHL and its farm clubs show up on our NHL page and AHL page.

People who came in from somewhere else

Some video coaches started in other departments. Jonas Plumb was working in the Vancouver Giants’ marketing department in 2004-05 when the club got a new video system and the coaches asked him to help part-time. He went on to the Washington Capitals and the 2010 Olympics before the Wild hired him.

T.J. Jindra captained Notre Dame, coached at several colleges and in the USHL, and ran hockey operations, including video, at St. Cloud State. He applied for a video scouting coordinator job with the Wild and was named video coach a year later. Tampa Bay video coach Brian Garlock started in youth and high school coaching and joined Jon Cooper in the NAHL as an equipment manager before reaching the NHL. Our guide to becoming an NHL equipment manager covers that side of the bench.

Emily Engel-Natzke played club hockey at Colorado and has a film degree. Her club coach brought her in to run video for the US women’s university team in 2013, which led to USA Hockey’s women’s national teams, a video coordinator job at Wisconsin, and then video coach for the AHL’s Hershey Bears.

Garlock told a USA Hockey youth clinic in 2026 that you do not need a playing background to coach, and that a coach can start doing video with a phone and about 15 minutes of clips.

What the job postings ask for

Junior clubs post these jobs on their own sites, and the duties listed run well past video. The Edmonton Oil Kings advertised a video coach and hockey operations coordinator job in July 2026, reporting to the general manager. Besides filming games and practices and building pre-scout and post-game packages in Catapult Thunder and PowerPoint, the job included running on-ice skill sessions, handling WHL player paperwork and scouting minor hockey. The club wanted on-ice coaching experience and preferred post-secondary study in sports management or business.

The Saskatoon Blades posted an interim video coach job for the 2026-27 WHL season in October. The duties were video breakdowns, pre-scouting, post-game analysis and video support for practices and meetings. Experience in coaching, video or hockey operations counted as an asset. The club asked for strong knowledge of hockey systems and for evenings, weekends and holidays on the WHL schedule. The posting on the club’s site asks for a resume and cover letter by email.

At Cornell the video job is also the operations job. Its posting for a men’s hockey operations manager and video coordinator covers opponent film breakdowns, tendency charts, in-game reports and supervising the student crew that films games, plus arranging team meals at home and on the road and planning alumni events. Cornell filled it in August 2026 with Austin Keiser, who had spent two seasons as goaltending coach and video coordinator for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.

What it pays

Of the postings we could open on employers’ own sites, only Cornell’s lists pay. Neither WHL posting gives a salary. Cornell’s gives a beginning salary of $52,670 for the 10-month job, and a pay range of $62,035 to $67,938 for the university job title it sits under. If a posting gives no figure, ask before you accept.

Where the job leads

Several people in this guide moved from video to a coaching job. Myles Fee’s Panthers bio lists a team services job in 2005-06, then video analyst with the New York Rangers, video coach with the Edmonton Oilers, assistant coach and video with the AHL Charlotte Checkers from 2016 to 2019, and three seasons as Buffalo’s video coach. Florida named him an assistant coach in August 2022.

Kim Weiss joined the AHL’s Colorado Eagles as video coach in August 2024 after college and junior coaching jobs. The Eagles promoted her to assistant coach in January 2026, the second woman to hold a full-time AHL assistant coach job, after Jessica Campbell. Zach Richards spent two seasons as an AHL video coach, the second with the Chicago Wolves, and then took an assistant coach job at Michigan Tech for 2026-27.

Others move into management. O’Rourke was promoted from video coach to assistant general manager in Kingston, and Lennon became the Frontenacs’ director of hockey operations before Wilkes-Barre/Scranton hired him. Our guide to what a hockey operations coordinator does covers that side.

Where to look

The entry jobs are at the levels below the NHL: college student manager and video coordinator roles, junior clubs in the OHL, WHL and USHL, and ECHL and AHL video coach jobs. Club video jobs on the business side, such as content and editing roles, are a different job, so read the duties before you apply.

Current roles are in our video and analytics jobs, and the Columbus Blue Jackets page shows any openings with a club that hired or promoted three video staff in 2025 and 2026. If you run a team and need video help, you can post the job free.