Troy Ryan has been the women’s hockey coach at Dalhousie University for the last two seasons while also leading Canada’s national women’s team. Tonight, Ryan will be behind the bench in their Olympic opener versus Switzerland.
His coaching roots run deep in the Maritimes and his jump to Olympic bench boss didn’t come out of thin air. Ryan spent more than a decade as a head coach in the Maritime Junior Hockey League with various teams. Also, Dalhousie isn’t Ryan’s first stint with an Atlantic University Sport team having been an assistant coach with the Acadia Axemen (2002-03) and head coach with the St. Thomas Tommies (2011-13).
Ryan is no stranger to international play either. He performed assistant coaching duties for Team Canada East at the World Jr. A Championships on six different occasions. He was an assistant coach for the women’s national team from 2016-19 where he won a silver medal at the 2018 Olympics and a bronze at the 2019 World Championships.
His most recent accolade came this past August at the 2021 World Championships where he led the Canadian squad to their first gold medal at the tournament in eight years. That also happened to be Ryan’s debut tournament as head coach of the women’s national team.
Four months later he would be named the head coach of the Olympic team heading to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
He recalls the moment he received the phone call from Hockey Canada. “I was at my house in Hubbards, Nova Scotia,” Ryan said in a press conference following the announcement of the final roster. “[I’m] very proud and honoured to have received that call and have the privilege of coaching this team, it's definitely special.”
The Dalhousie community had nothing but praise for their coach with messages coming from all over.
“We are both proud and excited to see Troy lead Team Canada to the 2022 Olympics,” says Tim Maloney, Executive Director of Athletics and Recreation. “He is most deserving of this opportunity and has clearly demonstrated success early on with the women’s national team.”
It’s not very often that your university coach also happens to be the Olympic coach and it's “a privilege our team feels lucky to have,” says fourth-year Tigers forward Autumn Moors.
First-year defender Katie Cameron shares the same sentiments. “It is such an honourable and humbling feeling to have the Olympic/national coach also be our coach,” explains Cameron. “It’s so surreal to be able to watch him on the TV knowing that we also have the privilege of having him be a part of our team.”
Even though Ryan hasn’t been around campus much due to his role with the national team, his presence is still felt.
“Troy coaching from afar this year has been different, but he is still very much involved,” says Moors. “He is always there to support the team, or any player whenever needed. He is someone I feel I can reach out to for advice at any time.”
According to his players, Ryan’s coaching role doesn't start and end on the ice.
“He wasn’t just holding a clipboard; he was doing laundry and painting dressing rooms,” explains Cameron. “He set an example by going above and beyond. [Even] with his long list of successes, no job was beneath him. He is the definition of humble.”
Ryan’s effectiveness in his short time as Tigers coach has been noticed by not only the players but by others within the university.
“We have had the good fortune of experiencing Troy’s ability to impact a program as he has had an incredible influence on our women’s hockey program at Dalhousie in his first two years at the helm,” says Maloney.
This past July, a list of 28 players headed to Calgary to prepare for the Olympics where Ryan and his coaching staff had the tough job of selecting the 23-player roster for the games.
After some tune-up games and the rivalry series with the United States, the final roster had been selected and was announced on January 11th. The team had a couple weeks to prepare and flew out to Beijing on January 26th.
Ryan and company will be looking to reclaim gold after losing to the Americans in the finals four years ago in Pyeongchang.
Below you can find the schedule for Team Canada. All the team’s round robin games will be at 12:10am EST and you can catch the action on CBC’s coverage of Beijing 2022.
Thursday, February 3rd vs Switzerland
Saturday, February 5th vs Finland
Monday, February 7th vs ROC
Tuesday, February 8th vs USA