| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Occupation: | Skating coach |
Dawn Braid is a Canadian skating coach and consultant. She was the first woman to hold a full-time coaching job in the National Hockey League.[1]
She grew up in Woodbridge, Ontario, and competed as a figure skater at a national level in her youth.[2] At the age of 17, she began coaching ice hockey players in skating techniques, working as a novice coach at in Toronto and for the junior B Vaughan Raiders team, owned by her father.[3]
In 2005, she was hired by the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs to teach at their development camp.[4] She would then go on to work as a consultant for several NHL teams, including the Buffalo Sabres, Anaheim Ducks, and Calgary Flames, as well as coaching a number of Ontario Hockey League players, including John Tavares and Ryan Merkley.[5] [6] In 2016, she was hired as a full-time skating coach by Arizona Coyotes, the first woman to hold a full-time coaching job in the NHL, and not just a part-time or temporary consulting position.[7] After two years with the Coyotes, she left the team to return to her consultancy work.[8]
She was named one of the 25 most powerful women in hockey by Sportsnet in 2020.[9]
Her son, Mackenzie Braid, played 14 games professionally in the ECHL.[10]