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Long-time Canadian women’s national hockey team head coach Troy Ryan says it’s “probably the right time for change” behind the bench, as the team looks ahead to the 2030 Olympics.
Over nearly a decade in charge of the senior national team, Ryan led Canada to Olympic gold in 2022, three world championships, and most recently, silver at the 2026 Olympics.
“I think win or lose in this situation that this was a typical point of transitioning, to some extent,” said Ryan, whose contract with Hockey Canada expires later this year.
Internally, there have been conversations between Ryan and Hockey Canada “over the last few years” about when to transition to a different role within the program or out of the program entirely.
Ryan mentioned assistants Kori Cheverie and Caroline Ouellette as coaches who deserve to get future opportunities with the program.
“They’ve worked with me as assistant coaches for a number of years and at some point, it’s someone else’s opportunity and someone else’s stage to do their thing,” Ryan said.
Watch every goal scored by Canada’s women’s hockey team at Milano Cortina 2026.
It’s one decision that looms for Hockey Canada days after the team came home with silver, and at a time when women’s hockey is in a period of change.
The PWHL has changed the way Hockey Canada selects its national team and prepares for major tournaments, with less time available together as a team.
At the same time, the international calendar is poised to change significantly, with the world championship moving to the fall, and the addition of a new spring tournament that could help close the development gap for younger players.
As Hockey Canada looks ahead, it plans to evaluate its women’s program to determine the path forward in the new environment, according to Scott Salmond, the organization’s senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations.
“We’ve got to take some time to reflect and kind of see what we’ve learned over the two years with the PWHL, and where that’s going and how that’s impacts our programs,” Salmond said in an interview.
A potential ‘changing of the guard’
Two minutes and four seconds separated Canada from a second straight Olympic gold medal.
Questions swirled throughout the tournament about whether the Canadians could beat a powerhouse American team. They almost did just that, playing their best game of the tournament — until a goal from American captain Hilary Knight tied the game at the end of the third period. U.S. defender Megan Keller ended it in overtime.
“We didn’t win the gold medal like we wanted to or expected to or knew we were capable of winning, but I think the way we played and the way that we stood together and showed up with so much heart and so much passion, I think we laid it all on the line,” assistant captain Blayre Turnbull said.
Megan Keller scored 4:07 into overtime, as the United States defeated Canada 2-1 to win the Olympic women’s hockey gold medal.
The team leaned heavy on veterans who had played together and built this program over the last couple of Olympic cycles.
That included 16 players who won together in Beijing in 2022, a core group that Ryan feels hasn’t been as celebrated as they deserve to be.
Within Hockey Canada, the focus is on respecting those players, but also looking ahead to 2030. The players are in the middle of the PWHL season right now, but conversations will be had about where they fit into the vision for 2030.
“Those are going to be difficult because there’s a possibility of a changing of the guard with our women’s team, with some leadership there, potentially,” Salmond said. “But we will be extremely respectful of those players. If they can continue to contribute and help us win, and that’s what they want, then we’ll give them every opportunity to do that. But we have to be looking today at what gives us the best opportunity four years from now.”
Beyond the roster, general manager Gina Kingsbury’s contract also expires later this year, according to Salmond.
She’s been balancing her role as general manager of the senior women’s team with her job as general manager of the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres since the league launched.
“We need to do a full evaluation on what’s best for Hockey Canada and what’s best for the program,” Salmond said. “That’s not to say Gina and Troy wouldn’t be. They may be. Or it may be time both from their perspective and ours that maybe we need full-time management, full-time coaching.”
That’s something the U.S. program has adopted, though Salmond also sees value in having a manager and coach who see and interact with PWHL players every day.
(Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press)
The next opportunity to play for Canada’s senior national team will come in the fall. The world championship will be held in November in Denmark, and there could be Rivalry Series games against the U.S. leading up to that.
“In my mind, it’s a perfect kind of lead into a world championship,” Salmond said about the future of the Rivalry Series.
Developing youth
While Hockey Canada leaned heavily on veterans when building its 2026 Olympic team, the U.S. team took a different approach. After losing several tournaments to the Canadians around the last Olympics, the team rebuilt around young players like Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Taylor Heise and Abbey Murphy.
Some of the younger players Canada brought to the Olympics, like Sarah Fillier and Daryl Watts, should be a big part of the team in 2030.
But there’s more talent coming, according to Mel Davidson, a long-time Hockey Canada women’s program general manager, coach and scout, who left the organization in 2020. She’s now a consultant with the PWHL’s Ottawa Charge and a high-performance advisor with Own the Podium.
“I don’t know how you could argue that we don’t have it,” Davidson said in an interview. “We won the U18 golds in 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025. You could argue that we were right there, maybe should have won in 2026.”
College players like Caitlin Kraemer, Chloe Primerano and Ève Gascon were part of the group that competed for spots on the 2026 Olympic team, and should play big roles in 2030.
Team Canada forwards Sarah Fillier and Laura Stacey say they’re still hurting from their overtime loss to the U.S. in the Olympics women’s hockey final in Milan, but they’re ‘proud of the way we battled’ and silenced the ‘outside noise’ from critics.
The gap has always been between the Under-18 level and the senior level, where international programming has varied over the years.
With European teams preparing for the Olympics this past season, there hasn’t been any games for Canada’s women’s development team beyond a summer series against the U.S.
Davidson doesn’t believe the U.S. is doing something Canada is not, but wants to see the net cast wide among young players.
“In Canada, we do have to help that development age group and provide opportunities for them, not just a select 20 or 25 because that really narrows [it],” she said. “We all know that there’s late developers.”
Canada’s development team
On the men’s side, Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence recently added a full-time general manager, Alan Millar. That position doesn’t exist on the women’s side.
Salmond pointed to Cherie Piper, the senior management of player development and scouting, who has “the same type of a role” as Millar. But Piper is responsible for all levels of women’s hockey and doesn’t have the same title.
That could change in the future, Salmond suggested.
“As maybe some of the time that we have with our senior athletes shift, we’ll shift that investment into our development programs, and we’ll evaluate the staffing part of it,” he said.
Next season, the development team will have a summer camp with 40-plus athletes, with the usual summer series against the U.S. development team. They’ll also compete in the Euro Hockey Tour around Christmas against the U.S. development team and players from Europe.
There’s no Under-20 or Under-23 tournament in women’s hockey, but Canada’s development team will have a third opportunity to play at a new European women’s championship that will launch in April 2027. Like the Euro Hockey Tour, they’ll play teams from Europe plus the U.S. development team.
That could help recent U18 standouts like Stryker Zablocki, Abby Stonehouse and Sara Manness play their way into the national team picture for 2030.
“If our [national team] players are younger, great,” Salmond said. “If they’re older, great. We’ll just pick the best players and we’ll put our money on Canada and see what happens.”
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