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Women’s team hires Walter

Ryan Walter has never coached a women’s hockey team before. The former NHL player is starting at the top.

Ryan Walter has never coached a women’s hockey team before. The former NHL player is starting at the top.

Walter was named head coach of the Canadian women’s hockey team Tuesday for the Four Nations Cup in November.

The annual tournament, featuring Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden, will be held Nov. 9-13 in St. John’s and Clarenville, N.L. Walter was an assistant coach of the Vancouver Canucks the last two seasons before he was released in August.

The 52-year-old from New Westminster, B.C., is a surprising choice for the women’s team, given his lack of international coaching experience and coaching female teams.

But he brings NHL clout to a program that has produced three straight Olympic gold medals and wants to remain No. 1 in the world.

“For me, this is just another real cool opportunity to work with basically the best in the world,” Walter said Tuesday in Calgary.