OverDrive - Getzlaf on coaching Canada's World Juniors team, coaching styles he's looking to emulate, and his career goals in hockey

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Former NHLer and two-time Olympic gold-medallist Ryan Getzlaf joins the show to discuss his interest in joining the Team Canada World Juniors staff, coaching styles he’d like to emulate, and what wisdom he’s hoping to share to the players on the Canadian roster.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Here he is. Long time, duck, big part of Canada's national team in the past, and he'll be a big part of the coaching staff for Team Canada at the World Juniors. There is Ryan Getslav. How you doing, Ryan?

I'm good. How are you doing, guys? We're doing very well. Can you take us back to that draft 03? How much did you know of Corey Perry and the fact that you guys both got drafted? to Anaheim. Yeah, it was a nice treat, I guess, when you get to go through it with somebody.

But I didn't know pairs that much before then, other than we had one World Junior camp together. But I got to know him really well after that, that's for sure. Yeah, no kid, man. What a way to start. And then in 07, you guys get there. You win the Stanley Cup. I mean, you guys won a gold together in 2010.

Like, what an incredible career. And you had such a great career as a player, and you've been doing stuff with the league and some executive stuff with, different teams, why get into the coaching ranks here? Take us through that thought process, the idea of being an assistant coach for the world junior team? Honestly, I'm just trying to get as much experience as I can.

And, you know, coaching is something that I never thought I would really get into. But the more and more I was around the team and around the coaching staff during our Olympic run there, I just thought, you know, why not try it? I got the invitation to do it with Meish and thought I'd jump in and give it a shot. That sounds great. Well, you're coaching and obviously you're trying to get experience around the game at the executive level, Ryan, and I know you've worked into the Department of Player Safety, but in the time since you last played a game back in 2022,

like, have there been moments where you thought, you know, I can come back? There's been many of them, actually. And then usually I put my skates on and go on the ice for 15 minutes and realize that I can play for about three and a half minutes a game probably. be good. That's enough. Let's start. You get paid.

Look at the salary cap right now. You can find a way to make $2, $3 million doing that. No problem. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's, well, I mean, we've talked to a lot of former players, and a lot of them actually just, they stuff their skates away, and they never want to skate again. They never want to play again.

Are you a beer league guy? Are you going to try to stay on the ice throughout the rest of your life, or what? All right, there you go. It was getting, it was icy off the top. I could tell we may have some issues there. We'll see if we can get him back. I think he's in the back of like a vehicle. An SUV.

Yeah, I was trying to get. Was that a train? I think he was being driven. Yeah, I think he's probably on his way to an airport or something. But we'll see if we can get him back on. Man, he was a good player, though. He was a really good player. Yeah, he won golds in 2010 and 2014.

Cup on 07. Could fight. Big dude. There he is. We got you back. We got you back. So I don't know if you heard that, but as, like you said, you threw your, you throw your skates on for 10, 15 minutes. but is your plan to kind of stay in game shape throughout the rest of your life?

Are you going to let yourself go a little bit like a lot of former pros, too? I've been letting myself go. I don't skate ever. I kind of put the skates away and playing the odd charity game and stuff. This is going to be, I've got to get back on the ice and get ready to go to this camp. We've got to coming up next week. So when you're talking about your career beyond the playing, lane days, Ryan. I mean, what's intrigued

you the most? I mean, you've had pretty varied experiences. And now it's coaching, but do you have a long-term plan for where you want to end up beyond this? I wouldn't say a long-term plan really in place yet. I think that I want to be in

and around the game for sure. And, you know, being a GM is probably my goal in the end. But as of right now, I'm trying to get as much experience around the game, different parts of the game. I've worked with the league now for a couple years and like you said did the player development and now I'm just going to try the coaching thing and see see where that leads me.

Ryan, now they're getting into this coaching. You've played for great coaches. You've been around great coaches. I'm sure there's some of them that you want to emulate. You want to do what this guy did, maybe some stuff that you don't want to do that you saw when you were a player. But the good ones, take us through that. Who do you want to kind of mirror yourself off of and use some of those lessons from? Well, I think that's the best part about it. I've had experience at many different levels and many different coaching styles. So I think ultimately as a coach, you've got to, first of all, be

authentic. You've got to be yourself in some aspect or players are going to notice you're not doing that. I think that I've learned a lot from different coaches. I had Mike Babcock at the World Events, and I really liked the way he ran those things. But then I've had some other coaches, you know, Bruce

and Randy and Dallas are all kind of different styles of things. So I'll take a little bit of everything from from each guy and try and build my own self. In terms of the world juniors, you know, having experience as a player, how does that, how might that help you once you get in the room? You know, you're talking 17, 18, 19 year old kids, but you've been in that position before.

How do you think that could help you with this experience? Well, that's the best part about it. I can honestly sit there and tell them I've sat in your shoes before. I've been on the winning and losing it at the world. I learned a lot of different lessons throughout both of those events. And I'm trying to take that into the locker room and take that experience into those games. We still got you. I think you're dropping us.

We'll let you go, though, Ryan. It sounds like you're busy. I know you're going to be busy leading up to the camp. And hopefully we can catch up around Christmas. Thank you for doing us. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Sorry about the service.

All good. No problem. There he is. Ryan gets left. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring. music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon,

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