It's difficult to say, honestly. A woman can theoretically hold any job off of the rink and perhaps someday maybe even a goaltender if some phenom appears eventually, but in the end, the double standard is always going to be ridiculously high for them to enter in. Coach is a more difficult position to enter in than even GM because you have to lead and hold the locker room accountable and to earn the respect of a room full of jacked-up, half-naked, males ranging from ages 17-40 is a very high bar. For a woman to come in and do that they'd have to be so ridiculously and unquestionably good to instantly halt any question of them being there and open the doors needed to get there.
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Honestly I think that's absurd.
You've never been around many women if you think they aren't something that can intimidate a 20 year old.
The problem isn't that women can't do it.
The problem is that it is so incredibly rare any woman would want to do it.
There's a ton of statistical trends that would suggest a woman truly interested in coaching wouldn't be competent.
First you need to be so good at understanding the game, that you can coach it without ever playing in a competent league at competitive speeds and competitive intensities. It's entirely possible, but it's rare even among men.
Second if you do break the glass ceiling and owners look to actual competence for coaching choices instead of some old boys club circle jerk, men are coming too. The Kyle Dubas's of the world will be flocking in for the same jobs.
Third if you're hiring someone based on an understanding of the game and not experience, statistically men will have an advantage. Testosterone does a lot to rewire your brain. Men are less cognitively stable than women. Men typify the more extreme behaviors of the human mind. The people with the best spatial/genetic abilities are mostly men, as well as the people at the higher end of the IQ spectrum. That doesn't mean men are smarter than women. It means a handful of men are very smart.
Fourth women have different temperaments. Women are less aggressive, less obsessed with things, etc. To be a good coach you treat your players like objects, and you tell those objects to smash those other objects. It's rare you're gonna find a women who's just cool to send someone out and to end up getting a broken arm etc.
Finally, you have to find a woman truly obsessed with the sport. There can be female sports fans etc. But it is rare they have a proper obsession, especially if they were never able to play at a high level.
It's a simple fact of science, while the overlap between genders is massive among ordinary people, when you're talking about the far end extreme of competitive sports women rarely stack up. You need to be hyper competitive, ruthless, have a very high spatial awareness and you have to be totally obsessed with hockey. You can't just have one element of a competitive coach, you need ever single one, and you need each of those traits on display when you're being recruited.
I have no idea why it's seen as progress, when a woman enters what is essentially a bloodsport.
I'm not saying that women can't thrive in the sports environment. I'm sure a female GM/Agent/Scout would probably do very well, as they can have serious biological advantages in the human factors part of a team. Women are typically better at resolving conflicts, better at reading people(especially important when doing good scouting/drafting), etc.
