Bio

This is Troy Ryan’s third season as head coach of the women’s hockey team.  

The current head coach of Hockey Canada’s national women’s team. Ryan recently led Team Canada to back-to-back gold medal finishes at the 2021 and 2022 World Women's Hockey championships. A Canadian Coaches Association Certified Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC), he’s been working with the women’s national program since 2017, leading Team Canada to a gold medal 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing after serving as an associate coach with the national women’s team and the head coach of the national development team in 2019. He was also an assistant coach with Canada’s silver medal-winning team at the 2018 PyeongChang, South Korea Olympic Winter Games.  

Before coming to Dalhousie, Ryan was the head coach, general manager, and president of the Maritime Hockey League’s (MHL) Campbellton Tigers from 2013-16. He also spent two years (2009-11) with the Metro Marauders of the MHL, serving as their president, general manager, and head coach before serving as the head coach of the St. Thomas Tommies (AUS) men’s hockey team for two seasons between 2011-13.  

A native of Spryfield, Nova Scotia, Ryan grew up playing in the Chebucto Atlantics Minor Hockey Association. He went on to play for the Halifax McDonald’s Midget AAA before playing four seasons of Junior hockey for Halifax. He finished off his career with the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds (1993-95) and the Saint Mary’s Huskies (1997-98).  

His foray into professional coaching started as an assistant coach with the Acadia Axemen from 2001-03. He went on to spend the 2003-04 season as the general manager and head coach of the Antigonish Bulldogs (MJAHL) before taking a five-year term in the same roles with the Pictou County Weeks Crushers (MJAHL).  

Ryan first started working with female hockey players in 2015 as the head coach of Nova Scotia’s Canada Winter Games team. He began working with provincial and Atlantic Canadian junior teams in 2005. He was the head coach of Nova Scotia’s boys Canada Winter Games team in 2007 before serving as an assistant coach in 2011. 

A coach with Own the Podium, he has received many awards and accolades over the years. He is a four-time Hockey Nova Scotia and Maritime Junior A Hockey League coach of the year. In 2018 and 2022, he was named the Sport Nova Scotia coach of the year and was honoured with a Hockey Nova Scotia Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.