Vicky Sunohara has the experience, both as a player and coach, she has the knowledge, and when it comes to finding a replacement for Canada’s senior national team, she should be atop Hockey Canada’s short list of candidates.
When Canada steps on the ice at the 2026 World Championships in November, the women's national team will have a new coach behind the bench for the first time in six years. That move comes after the expected departure of current national team head coach and Toronto Sceptres' bench boss Troy Ryan.
Ryan leaves the program as one of Canada's most successful head coaches, but also at a crossroads as the current roster is in need of an overhaul, and the team's coaching was heavily criticized for decisions and their approach to the 2026 Olympics.
While current Canadian national team assistant coaches Caroline Ouellette and Kori Cheverie are considered front runners, perhaps Canada's best option if the program values experience, is the candidate with the most head coaching experience, Vicky Sunohara.
Sunohara is currently the head coach of Canada's U-18 national team, a post she's held at the last two U-18 World Championships, and has served as the head coach for the University of Toronto's women's program for 15 years.
Sunohara was named the U Sports and OUA Coach of the Year in three consecutive seasons, most recently earning the award in 2023.
Perhaps more important than her coaching success and experience in the head coach role, is Sunohara's knowledge of Canada's up and coming talent pool having coached the U-18 program as head coach the last two seasons, and as an assistant coach in the two years prior to that. With Canada's national program at a bellweather moment, Sunohara is already well versed in, and has rapport with the players who will need to be counted upon to carry Canada's national team into a new era.
Coaching Canada's U-18 team to World Championship gold in 2025, Sunohara's roster included NCAA rookies Stryker Zablocki, Sara Manness, Danica Maynard, Kate Manness, and Maxine Cimeroni, as well as second year defender Chloe Primerano. This season, Zablocki was named the Hockey East Player of the Year as a rookie with Northeastern, and was the first rookie to lead Hockey East in scoring since Daryl Watts in 2017-2018. Sara Manness was the top scoring rookie in NCAA hockey this season and an ECAC First Team All-Star. Her point totals were the highest in NCAA hockey by a rookie since Watts in 2017-2018, outscoring players like Alina Muller, Caroline Harvey, Tessa Janecke, and Laila Edwards in their rookie years. Her sister Kate Manness, who was also coached by Sunohara, was also a First Team ECAC All-Star from Clarkson finishing the year as the top scoring rookie defender in the NCAA.
Primerano, of course, already has a World Championship silver medal from 2025 and is in her second season with Minnesota; Maynard was a Second Team AHA All-Star as a rookie with Penn State; and several others who had Sunohara as their head or assistant coach at the U-18 level including Jocelyn Amos, Piper Grober, Ava Drabyk, Mackenzie Alexander, Caitlin Kraemer, Claire Murdoch, Jessica MacKinnon, and Makayla Watson were all NCAA All-Stars or All-Rookie team members this season.
As a player Sunohara has seven World Championship and two Olympic gold medals representing Canada. She was inducted to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2024, and also to the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2025.
While Sunohara does have ties to the PWHL, hired as a coaching consultant with the Toronto Sceptres, her role is not the same as the other coaches who may be under consideration who have direct impact on roster decisions on both sides. With Canada's current coaching staff, concerns have been raised on multiple occasions from within the PWHL and national team program about potential conflicts of interest. With Sunohara, whose primary coaching responsibility is the University of Toronto, there would be no additional conflicts when it comes to roster selection of a PWHL and national team, or the transfer of sensitive information between the PWHL and Hockey Canada.
Beyond the logistics, Sunohara has proven herself as a world-class coach both at the university level and internationally. As a player, she was one of the best in the world, and her experiences on the bench and on the ice could be exactly what Team Canada is looking for heading into the 2026 World Championships and a new Olympic cycle.