Canada's bench boss and Olympic champion leaves Toronto to spearhead the PWHL expansion franchise, taking on a rare dual role to build a roster and culture from the ground up.
Troy Ryan is heading west.
After three seasons behind the bench of the Toronto Sceptres and years as one of the most influential figures in Canada’s women’s hockey program, Ryan has been named the first head coach and general manager of PWHL San Jose.
The move gives San Jose immediate credibility as one of the PWHL’s newest expansion franchises. It also gives the league its first true dual coach-GM figure, a first for the league and a major bet on Ryan’s ability not only to coach elite players, but to build a roster from scratch.
For San Jose, the appeal is obvious. Ryan brings Olympic and world championship experience, three seasons of PWHL head coaching experience, and one of the deepest working knowledge bases of the women’s hockey player pool. He has coached many of the top Canadian players in the world, worked with players at nearly every stage of their international careers, and built a reputation as a keen teacher who values individual development.
But the hire is not uncomplicated.
Ryan arrives in San Jose after a three-year run with Toronto that included regular-season success, playoff disappointment, and growing scrutiny from fans and observers. He was one of the league's founding coaches, named the inaugural bench boss of PWHL Toronto. In the league’s first season, Toronto finished first in the regular season. In Year 2, the Sceptres finished second.
Both seasons, however, ended with first-round playoff losses to the Minnesota Frost. This season, Toronto failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time, bringing a complicated end to Ryan’s tenure with the franchise.
Ryan’s Toronto years were also closely tied to his role with Canada’s national women’s team. He and Toronto general manager Gina Kingsbury had been professionally linked since the 2017-18 season, when they began working together with Canada’s national program. That partnership continued in the PWHL, with Kingsbury serving as general manager of both Canada and Toronto, while Ryan served as head coach of both teams.
That overlap made Ryan one of the most powerful and visible figures in the women’s game. It also made him one of the most scrutinized.
Some of the criticism focused on coaching decisions. Some of it focused on optics. With Ryan and Kingsbury holding major roles with both Team Canada and Toronto, the arrangement raised questions among some fans and observers about the concentration of influence between the national program and one PWHL franchise.
Those inside the programs often framed the overlap as a product of trust, familiarity and shared standards. Externally, it became a recurring point of debate, particularly as Toronto’s regular-season promise failed to translate into playoff success and with Canada’s recent performances in the World Championships and Rivalry Series, as well as silver-medal finish at the Olympics.
Troy Ryan coaches Canada in the fall of 2025Following the 2026 Games, Ryan publicly acknowledged that it was time for a new voice to guide Canada’s women’s national team. He pointed to coaches such as Montreal Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie and Caroline Ouellette as potential figures in the program’s future, saying that “at some point, it’s someone else’s opportunity.”
Now, Ryan’s own next opportunity is with PWHL San Jose.
The general manager title adds a new layer to his story. While Ryan is best known in women’s hockey as a coach, he does have prior management experience from his time in men’s junior hockey in Nova Scotia. Still, building a PWHL expansion team will be a different challenge. San Jose will need to navigate expansion rules, free agency, the entry draft, contracts, staff building and the creation of a team identity before ever playing a game.
Ryan’s greatest advantage may be his relationships.
He has coached a large portion of Canada’s veteran player pool and has long-standing ties to many players who could become central figures in an expansion build. That immediately raises one of the most interesting questions around San Jose: how many players who have played for Ryan before might be interested in following him west?
Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull is one fascinating name in the conversation if she is available. Turnbull has been central to the Sceptres’ identity, but she also has deep Team Canada ties, Nova Scotia roots and a long relationship with Ryan. Her situation would test whether Toronto’s veteran core is tied more strongly to the city, to Kingsbury, to the franchise, or to the coach who has known many of them for years.
More broadly, a Ryan-led San Jose team could be expected to look closely at established Canadian veterans — the type of players he knows well and has trusted in high-pressure environments. That approach could give an expansion team instant credibility, leadership and structure.
In San Jose, he gets a blank roster, a new market and a chance to shape an expansion team in his own image. The question now is what kind of team he will build — and who will follow him there.