Ryan, 49, will also be the Canadian women’s head coach for the next World Championship, originally due to have been played in Halifax and Truro in 2020.

The Championship was switched to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and has been postponed twice this year.

The International Ice Hockey Federation has rescheduled the event for August 20 to 31.

The pandemic limited Ryan to just three camps with the Canadian women’s team this winter, although he’s continued to build relationships with players and staff virtually.

"It’s definitely not how you would script it," Ryan told The Canadian Press.

"Some of the negative sides we’ve had right now can end up being positives because it forces you to work a little bit differently.

"Any time you work differently, there’s some new things you learn about each other for sure."

Women’s ice hockey was first played at the Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998, when Canada took silver behind the United States.

Canada then won four consecutive titles before being beaten by the US in the gold medal game at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Ryan was Canada’s assistant coach from 2016 to 2019 and a member of the Olympic team staff in 2018, when Canada lost the final 3-2 to the United States in a shootout under head coach Laura Schuler.

Ryan was also an assistant to Perry Pearn at the 2019 World Championship in Finland, where Canada took bronze.

Midway through the 2019-20 season, Ryan took over from Pearn.

Looking ahead to the World Championship, Ryan said: "If you look at it from the positive side, you start centralisation, you formulate a team, you win a World Championship.

"What a great way to start a centralisation.

"If you have your World Championship and you don’t win, at least you have a gauge there now.

"You can work on those things that need to be worked on to obviously prepare you to ultimately win a gold medal at the Olympics.

"Obviously I’d take option A any day."