Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Dawn Braid's Road To The NHL

08/30/2016 at 3:02pm EDT

from Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated,

Five days after the press release was posted, the buzz had barely dwindled, the surprise still there. “I’ll be honest, it’s a little bit overwhelming,” Dawn Braid says. “I’m not used to this kind of attention. I haven’t really wrapped my head around everything that’s happened.”

Until August 24, when the Arizona Coyotes made Braid their new skating coach and what’s believed to be the first full-time female assistant in NHL history, the 52-year-old had always preferred operating at low-key levels. Her private training business, located in Ontario, maintains no website and buys no advertisements, relying only on reputation and referrals. Her two sons still tease her about social media illiteracy. There is genuine concern in her voice when she says of all this newfound attention, “I was on the ice today, and I was a little worried. Am I going to go in and are there going to be people watching me? Is it going to be fair to the players I’m working with?”

No, Braid didn’t think much of Arizona announcing her hiring, in the final paragraph of a 280-word memo that also welcomed aboard a development coach (Mike Van Ryn) and a skills coach (Steve Potvin). This was merely the next logical step in a long career, ever since her late father first nudged her down this road.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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