CALGARY — Canadian women’s hockey team leadership is in transition after a heartbreaking overtime loss to the United States in the Olympic Games final.
Head coach Troy Ryan has indicated he likely won’t return for a seventh season, so a new head coach would be behind Canada’s bench at the women’s world championship Nov. 6-16 in Herning and Esbjerg, Denmark.
The U.S. beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in the Olympic final Feb. 19 in Milan, Italy, for an eighth straight victory over its hockey archrival.
Ryan suggested he’s uninclined to continue coaching the Canadian women’s team when he told The Associated Press “it’s time for someone else to run with it and take it to new heights.”
Hockey Canada’s contracts with both Ryan and women’s team general manager Gina Kingsbury expire this spring.
“My contract is up at the end of June,” Kingsbury said Monday in a message to The Canadian Press.
“If Hockey Canada feels like there is a role that I can help have an impact in, I would consider it. But the whole plan/vision would have to make sense.
“I also understand if the new direction doesn’t include me. I’m open for discussion either way and will be our program’s biggest supporter if I’m not involved.”
Ryan is head coach and Kingsbury the GM of the Professional Women’s Hockey’s League’s Toronto Sceptres.
Conversations about the future with Ryan and Kingsbury “will be sooner than later,” said Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations.
“It’s all really fresh for everyone right now. In fairness, I haven’t spoke to Troy or Gina yet about what the future holds,” he continued. “That’s on my plan to do this week before I go back to the Paralympics.
“I read the things that Troy said as well, but he and I haven’t had that conversation.”
After a playing career that included a pair of Olympic gold medals, Kingsbury joined Hockey Canada in 2016 as a director of hockey operations, and took over the national women’s program in 2018 when Melody Davidson stepped down.
Kingsbury initially left Hockey Canada in 2023 when she was hired as the Sceptres’ first GM.
Kingsbury returned within weeks of her announced departure, however, to continue managing the women’s team through the 2026 Olympic Games.
“My job is to put the best people in place. That would start with the general manager if that’s Gina or otherwise, and then work closely with that individual to hire what would be the best coach,” Salmond said.
“Regardless of where we end up with Gina and Troy, they’ll both be involved in shaping the future. They’ve got way too much experience and concern and care for the program to not have them involved in at least shaping and some ideas around what the future would look like.
“There’s work to be done immediately in evaluating players in the second part of the PWHL season and the playoffs and then identifying what the next four years look like and particularly what the summer looks like in preparation for November.”
The 2026 Olympic women’s hockey tournament was the first after the arrival of the PWHL, which completely altered Canada’s traditional preparation. All 23 women on Canada’s Olympic roster play in the PWHL.
Canada’s women didn’t centralize in Calgary for five to six months for training and games. They had three training camps before the start of the PWHL season in November.
Ryan and Kingsbury were the first to hold top leadership roles with both a PWHL team and the national team.
“Is it the best interest to have a PWHL coach? Those are questions that need to be asked and things that we need to get opinions on from different people,” Salmond said.
“I’m not convinced either way, yet. That’s going to take a take a little bit of time. Now there’s more questions than there are answers, which is the right place to be today.”
Montreal Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie, Victoire assistant coach Caroline Ouellette and Syracuse University Orange coach Britni Smith were Ryan’s assistant coaches at the Milan Cortina Games.
Cheverie and Ouellette are top candidates to replace Ryan. Cheverie, 38, has served as his assistant on the Canadian team for six years.
The 46-year-old Ouellette, a four-time Olympic gold medallist, has been a Canadian assistant coach six times since 2019.
“I value experience, for sure, international experience,” Salmond said. “Caro, Kori, they’ve done a lot for our program. I would say right now they would have a leg up for sure, but we’re committed to a thorough search.”
Under the leadership of Kingsbury and Ryan, Canada’s women won Olympic gold in 2022 and world championships in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and lost to the U.S. in the final of the 2026 Olympic Games, as well as the 2025 and 2023 world championships.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
