PWHL expansion upends the job market for coaches and GMs as Hockey Canada starts search

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Hockey Canada announced Tuesday that general manager Gina Kingsbury will not return after eight years overseeing the national women’s team, meaning the organization now has to find a new GM along with a new coach in a job market that has changed dramatically with the growth of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Kingsbury is the GM of the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres while former coach Troy Ryan was recently hired as coach and GM of the PWHL expansion team in San Jose. His six-year run with Canada ended with Olympic silver in what was the team's eighth consecutive loss to the archrival U.S.

Hockey Canada’s contracts with Kingsbury and Ryan were to expire next month.

“I’m good with the transition. I’m ready for it,” Kingsbury said. “It’s time for someone to look at the landscape that has shifted in women’s hockey and set out their own vision on what that could look like for the future.”

The PWHL has altered the women’s hockey landscape in its first three seasons. The International Ice Hockey Federation shifted the world championship from April to November starting this year to avoid conflict with the PWHL season. By expanding by four teams to a 12-team league next season, the league also has churned the market for coaches and GMs.

The PWHL expansion team in Hamilton, Ontario, hired former U.S. team captain Meghan Duggan as GM, former Canadian goaltender Manon Rheaume is Detroit’s GM and former player agent Dominique DiDia is the new GM in Las Vegas.

“We’ve done quite a bit of analysis, but the sands continue to shift underneath our feet,” Hockey Canada chief executive Katherine Henderson told The Canadian Press. “I’m thrilled that there’s four new (PWHL) teams. I’m also saying now there’s four new competitors for a full-time job. I may want to go after some of those people. We’re going to have to up our game a little bit and say ‘come and work with Hockey Canada.’”

The 2026 Olympics was the first in the PWHL era. Canada’s women didn’t spend five to six months together training and playing games as they had for previous Games.

Ryan and Kingsbury were the first to hold top leadership roles with both a PWHL team and the Canadian women’s team simultaneously. A hybrid of Hockey Canada staff and NHL general managers and coaches has traditionally led Canada’s men into world championships and Olympic Games.

“We now need to live in a world probably closer to how we put together our men’s senior teams,” Henderson said.

Kingsbury said she also believes that model works for the women’s team with a dedicated person at Hockey Canada directing it.

“Someone needs to be at the helm of women’s hockey at Hockey Canada from a high-performance perspective,” Kingsbury said. “I do think there is a place for PWHL GMs to be a part of teams and the Olympic team and world championship teams and help select players. There’s an opportunity for coaches I think certainly to be from the PWHL.”

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

Montreal Victoire goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens (35) celebrates after defeating the Ottawa Charge in game 4 of the PWHL Walter Cup hockey final in Ottawa, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Justin TangThe Canadian Press via AP) CORRECTION: name of photographer Justin Tang

FILE - Toronto Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan directs his team as they play the Minnesota Frost in the first period of a PWHL hockey playoff game, May 11, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)

Montreal Victoire's Marie-Philip Poulin (29) carries the PWHL Walter Cup to her teammates, after the team's win against the Ottawa Charge, in Ottawa, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP) CORRECTION: name of photographer Justin Tang

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with President Donald Trump's administration in a lawsuit over speech restrictions for immigration judges that touched on the rights of federal workers.

The justices overturned a lower-court ruling that had allowed the case to proceed and raised questions about whether a complaint system for federal employees is still working as intended after the Republican president fired some of its top officials.

Immigration judges are federal employees, despite their titles, and had wanted to sue over a policy restricting their public speeches that started in Trump's first term in office and continued under President Joe Biden's Democratic administration. The judges argued it was a free speech issue that belongs in federal court.

The Trump administration disagreed, saying the judges must instead take their dispute to the complaint system for federal employees overseen by the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The court ruled on procedural grounds, but Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, wrote to rebuke the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for responding to “political controversies of the day.”

Tuesday's decision comes as the court weighs another lawsuit about Trump’s power to fire heads of independent agencies. The outcome is also expected to affect firing power over Merit Systems Protection Board members.

The judges first sued in 2020, and the Supreme Court previously temporarily sided with them on an emergency basis in December. A union said in a statement that the judges were disappointed by the decision but the case is “far from over.”

“Justice cannot endure when judges are intimidated into silence, nor can a nation remain free when the rule of law is subordinate to the whims of political ambition,” the National Association of Immigration Judges said.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Friday, May 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)