Manitobans at helm of Canada’s U16 team at Youth Winter Games in South Korea

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This article was published 27/12/2023 (1007 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryan Smith, a hockey lifer if there ever was one, has always been eager to accept new challenges.

He played professionally in Germany until he was 35, and upon retiring embarked on a coaching career that has taken him to six stops scattered all across Western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Last August, the 50-year-old Headingley product received another tantalizing offer — to serve as head coach of Canada’s male U16 hockey entry at next month’s Youth Winter Games in South Korea. Trouble was, he was preparing for his second season as head coach of the Spokane Chiefs and fully immersed in a rebuild of that WHL franchise.

Could he do both?

“It is an odd time because it’s shortly after our trade deadline and it’s kind of the playoff push in the Western League and the entire CHL, so the timing of it isn’t perfect for us for sure,” Smith said, during a recent chat. “But Spokane is an unbelievable organization. I’m really fortunate to be part of the Chiefs family. When I got the call late in the summertime, my first call to see if they would be willing to give me the opportunity to go (was to) our GM Matt Bardsley. He basically said he’d be pissed off if I didn’t take it.”

Smith started paying his dues in the coaching ranks with the MJHL’s Winnipeg Blues and Selkirk Steelers.

“I also spent a year in Humboldt (SJHL), I was in Swift (Current, WHL) for three and (Medicine) Hat (WHL) for two and this is my fourth year in Spokane,” says Smith, who rejoined his wife Kelly, son Kai and daughter Vayda at their home in Headingley over the Christmas break. “I just kind of keep moving farther away from home and appropriately enough my next job is in Korea. I don’t know where it’s going from there.”

Coincidentally, the biggest advocate for Smith’s appointment was Kurt Keats, Hockey Canada’s manager of hockey operations, who oversaw the assembly of the national U16 team roster. Keats, a 28-year-old Winnipeg product, had faced the Smith-coached Selkirk Steelers when Keats was playing for the MJHL’s Winnipeg Blues.

He was also very familiar with Smith’s track record with Hockey Canada’s U17 and World Junior A Challenge programs and figured he’d be an excellent fit to lead a squad at the Youth Olympics.

“Because it’s such a short tournament and a short camp and no big selection camp in the leadup, we wanted to take a veteran staff that’s been around the program, and Smitty’s got experience with our program and he’s someone that we knew we could trust with 18 15-year-olds to fly across the pond,” says Keats.

The Canadians, who do not have any Manitoba players, will convene in Victoria for a three-day training camp on Jan. 21, and play their first game in South Korea on Jan. 27. They return to North America on Feb. 12.

“The players we’re getting are so elite and smart, we hope that they can pick up what we’re putting down and we hope their natural ability will take over as well,” says Smith. “But we’ll have to let them play a little bit, too…With a little bit of structure and a little bit of natural ability, I think we’ve a good chance.”

Keats is similarly immersed with his work for Hockey Canada.

He went from playing for UMass in the Frozen Four final against Minnesota Duluth in 2019 to an intern position involved with logistics and administration at Hockey Canada before being hired full time by the organization shortly thereafter.

Keats was a casualty of layoffs in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, returning home to coach briefly at the Rink Hockey Academy, before being rehired by Hockey Canada in his current role.

“He’s moved up and he’s done well,” says Smith. “He does a great job at what he does and his hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.”

Last season, Keats spent 160 days on the road while being responsible for the national U17 team, world junior team, world championship team and Gretzky-Hlinka tournament team. This season, he is in charge of Canada’s entries at the Spengler Cup, men’s world championship, World Junior A Challenge and Youth Olympics.

“Being able to work with one team all year is always great but to be able to travel to all these different places and always with different groups and each group is unique in its own way, the relationships are what really makes it special,” says Keats.

Keats, who studied sports management at UMass, might consider a return to coaching at some point.

“I think trying to stay on the management side of things would be ideal for me, but you know, I wouldn’t be opposed to something like that,” says Keats. “I’m just kind of keeping everything open, right? Especially in this industry, you never know who’s gonna call you next. With Hockey Canada, I can’t say enough good things about the people I work with in the organization.”

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MJHL commissioner Kevin Saurette confirmed Wednesday Dauphin head coach Doug Hedley is serving a 10-game suspension after being assessed a gross misconduct in the Kings’ game against the Steinbach Pistons on Nov. 24.

The punishment was assessed after a violation of Hockey Canada’s rule 11.4, which covers verbals taunts, insults or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds.

Hedley is eligible to return to the Kings’ bench for a Jan. 7 game against the visiting Selkirk Steelers.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca