FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – A group of young and talented hockey players recently took to the ice to kick off the annual Florida Panthers Development Camp under new leadership.
Less than a month after winning the Stanley Cup, the panthers wasted no time beginning their development camp where a new coach awaited the proteges.
Christine Bumstead was invited to be apart of the staff of the development camp to work closely with the players. She’s currently a performance coach for the men’s Saskatoon Blades western hockey league team.
“Yea so I guess coaching pretty much runs in my blood. I’ve been doing it as soon as I stopped playing or even when I was still playing I was coaching,” said Christine Bumstead.
New opportunities typically goes hand in hand with periods of adjustments, especially when coaching young men, but Bumstead decided she’d tackle this head on and with confidence.
“I think you always have nerves. You don’t really know how other people are going to see the situation or take it, but with myself I was confident in what I was there to do,” said Bumstead. “I was there to help the players be better and get better and develop them. And that’s exactly what we wound up doing.”
Christine has a relationship with Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, she was Winnipeg Jets development coach when Maurice was the Jets head coach. During COVID-19, Christine and her dad invited Paul to go hunting.
“We took a long drive together and him and I just kind of talking about coaching and kind of what I was doing and things like that. And it kind of just opened a whole new door to me,” she said.
Christine says the Panthers invited her to give her coaching knowledge.
“It’s been a seamless transition. It’s the first time we’ve had a female coach in here and she’s fit in greatly. She’s add a lot of value. She’s had some great teaching points and stuff. She’s been fabulous this week, it’s been a lot of fun to have her around,” said one assistant coach .
Being at this camp for Christine come on the heels of Jessica Campbell being named the first female National Hockey League coach, she’s an assistant with the Seattle Kraken.
“There’s a female or a male on the men’s or the women’s side of sport. I think the norm has always been to have the right coaches in the right spots,” said Bumstead.
Christine felt right at home at the Panthers camp.
“I was just one of the coaches right when I walked in. It was never liked ‘here’s Christine, she’s a female and she’s a coach.’ It was just ‘here’s Christine she’s part of our staff’ and I think the players were supper welcoming right from the get go and the staff as well,” she said. “It was something new for everybody, but everyone took it in stride. It was great.”
Christine not only coaches young men in the western hockey league, the 28-year-old went into her fourth season as an assistant coach for the University of Saskatchewan Huskie women’s team.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
