Ryan Walter played and coached more than 1100 games over 17 seasons in the National Hockey League. Drafted second overall by the Washington Capitals in 1978, Ryan was named the youngest NHL captain in his second of 4 seasons, played 9 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens, and returned to his home town to play his last 2 seasons for the Vancouver Canucks. He was named Team Canada Captain in the World Junior Tournament, was selected to play in the NHL All-Star game and for Team Canada in 4 World Championships, became a Vice-President of the National Hockey League Players Association, and was honoured as NHL Man of the Year in 1992. Ryan has been inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame, the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame, named to the 30 all-time Washington Capitals’ Dream team, the top 50 all-time BCHL players and the top 100 Montreal Canadiens in 100 years.
Ryan has a Master of Arts Degree in Leadership/Business. He is the author of 5 books, the creator of the board game Trade Deadline Hockey, and a regular contributor to both online and print magazines and newspapers. Ryan serves on the Hockey Canada Foundation’s Board of Directors and is a member of the Seton Hall Stillman School of Business Leadership Advisory Council.
Ryan won a Gold Medal at his inaugural 4 Nations Cup tournament as Head Coach of Canada’s National Women’s Hockey Team. He has been an NHL coach, co-founder and president of two start-up companies, a TV hockey analyst, and a hockey adviser and actor for both television and movies. Ryan’s enthusiasm from the page, the screen, the bench, the boardroom, and the podium is contagious as he fulfills his mission to “Inspire the hungry spirit!”
Increasingly, the ability of Leadership to engage and empower your players determines the performance of your organization. But how do you ensure you’re getting the most from your individual players and your team? Ryan shows managers and coach’s techniques that NHL coaches utilize to create their HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE.
We have constructed a fabulous coaching program as a result of interviewing 12 top National Hockey League coaches for Simply The Best :Insights and Strategies from Great Hockey Coaches. Their amazing strategies, along with Ryan’s championship experience on and off the ice, have become the core elements of Coaching HUNGRY Teams. Whether you are a minor sport coach, a parent, manager, or CEO, coaching is an essential process in all that you do, both coaching for performance, and also coaching your next generation coaches and leaders so that they are prepared and properly trained to step up.
We have all been there… how do we consistently stay there?
Ryan reaches back into his 15 season NHL career to extrapolate the principles he used as a professional athlete for consistently driving high performance, and transfers these into practical steps that work in your environment. Your people will gain insight into personal strengths and their impact on team performance, and how the team’s level of synergy sucks or supplies energy to individuals. Ryan will contour his presentation to “hit home” specifically to your needs
