Toronto GM Gina Kingsbury is expected to hire the head coach of the Canadian Women's National Team, Troy Ryan, to be her franchise's first head coach. Kingsbury and Ryan have worked together since 2018 when Kingsbury was the president of hockey ops for Team Canada and Ryan was the head coach.
They've worked together ever since then, winning three gold medals in the process. Ryan most recently worked as the assistant coach for the Canadian Men's National Team at the Men's World Championships, where they won gold as well. Ryan coached in the MJAHL and CIS for a long time, along with coaching national junior teams within Hockey Canada, before moving into the national team in 2016-17.
This news comes as a report from Jeff Marek, who has been on top of the breaking news (along with the Athletic's Hailey Salvian) this month and long before that.
Sounds like Canadian national women’s head coach Troy Ryan will coach PWHL Toronto.
— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) September 6, 2023
Since most, if not all, of the players on the Canadian national team will be in the PWHL, the league was designed to not overlap with Olympic and World Championship cycles, meaning Ryan can presumably continue to coach the national team with his players that'll include Toronto's Sarah Nurse, Blayre Turnbull, and Renata Fast.
We'll hopefully get confirmation on this when the team announces the signing and whether Ryan will be able to fulfill both duties. Kingsbury said that she is moving on from Hockey Canada to work as the GM full-time, so it's possible Canada could also need a new head coach.
