For the first time in over a decade, Scott Wray is starting his season in a city outside of Northern Ontario. The former assistant coach of the North Bay Battalion has begun his tenure as head coach of the Owen Sound Attack. The 44-year-old Ottawa native spent the last seven seasons with the North Bay Battalion and the three before that as Head Coach of the Powassan Voodoos. He says the opportunity to lead his own team was something he could not pass up.
“It came down to when they posted the job,” Wray explains. “Oulie (Battalion head coach Ryan Oulahen) looked at me and said, ‘That’s tailor-made for you,’ and that gave me a lot of confidence. For him to tell me that it’s something I should do—it really pushed me to apply. I put my resume in, talked to [Attack General Manager Dale] DeGray a few times, and they brought me on board. It’s been a great fit so far.”
Wray credits not just Oulahen but also his family for supporting his decision to take on the head coach role. “My wife was adamant about me giving this a try,” Wray says. “She said, ‘If it doesn’t work out, maybe we reevaluate.’ But after seven years in the OHL, seeing the progression of the league and the players, I really wanted to be on this side of things and mold a team into a winning product.”
Before joining the Battalion as an assistant in 2017, Wray had already gained a wealth of coaching experience. He was named the first head coach in program history for the Powassan Voodoos in 2014, leading them to an NOJHL championship in 2016-17 and establishing a winning culture from the ground up.
“We were pretty successful in Powassan,” Wray recalls. “It was a lot of fun working with those kids. You take the things you’ve learned along the road and put them into practice. For me, it’s about learning to not be too hard on certain players or on yourself. I’ve learned to stay composed and ride the wave, instead of letting the ups and downs affect me too much.”
Wray also draws on his playing career to guide his coaching philosophy. He spent 15 years in minor pro hockey, playing in six leagues and two countries, including the Central Hockey League, where he racked up over 500 points. “I’ve been in a lot of places as a player,” Wray says. “I know what it’s like to face adversity, and that’s something I can help these kids with. It’s not always a straight line to success. There are setbacks, and that’s when you grow the most.”
Wray is excited about the roster the Attack has for the upcoming season, with some standout talent to build around.
“We’ve got some really good pieces,” Wray says. “Carter George is one of the best goalies in junior hockey.”
George was selected 57th Overall in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft by the Kings in June. He compiled an impressive .907 save percentage, a 3.30 goals-against-average, and league-leading four shutouts, with a record of 23-21-6. He was also selected to both the OHL All-Rookie Team and OHL Third All-Star Team. The Thunder Bay native has also represented Canada at the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) U18 World Junior Championship, leading Team Canada to a 6-0-0 record and gold medal, winning him recognition as a Top Three Player on the Team as well as being named the Best Goaltender of the Tournament.
“Having him as our backbone is huge,” says Wray. “Konnor Smith has Memorial Cup experience and an OHL championship with Peterborough, so his leadership will be vital. And we’ve got a great group of ‘06s and ‘07s just starting to realize their potential.”
One of Wray’s focuses is building confidence in his young players by giving them the opportunity to learn through experience.
“I think the biggest thing is letting these kids play through mistakes,” he explains. “You can’t succeed if you’re not given the chance to fail. That’s how you develop. We’re going to put them in situations they haven’t been in before, and they’ll grow from it.”
For Wray, there was also already a connection to Owen Sound as he was selected by the Owen Sound Platers in the fourth round, 55th overall, of the 1996 OHL Priority Selection and played 21 games with them in 1996-97 before joining the North Bay Centennials in the same season.
In 179 OHL games with Owen Sound, North Bay and the Plymouth Whalers, he scored 41 goals and earned 54 assists for 95 points while amassing 156 penalty minutes. He played 150 games with the Centennials, scoring 38 goals and adding 48 assists for 86 points with 141 PIMs.
After completing his OHL career with Plymouth in 1999-00, he played in six professional leagues, including two in England, before retiring after the 2013-14 season, his fifth with the South Dakota-based Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League. In 692 regular-season CHL games, believed to be a league record, he had 287 goals, 302 assists, 589 points, and 838 PIMs.
Wray's second game as the bench boss in Owen Sound was back in his old stomping ground in North Bay as the Attack played a preseason matchup against the Battalion, the Troops winning 3-2 in a shootout.
Oulahen spoke about his friendship with Wray following the preseason game in North Bay.
“He’s one of my best friends. It’s special for me because he is the first assistant coach I’ve had who has graduated to be a head coach in the OHL, so I couldn’t be prouder of him,” he says.
Oulahen joined the Battalion as their head coach midway through the 2019 season, with Wray already a part of the coaching staff when Oulahen arrived.
“The last few years, I sometimes felt bad that I had the title of head coach because he did so much for our group and he was ready. He was ready to move on and have some success. He gets a young group in Owen Sound that he really gets a chance to mold and gel together and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do and I know he’s going to have a ton of success.”
The preseason game brought Wray back to the place where he built a significant part of his coaching career.
“Everyone told me it was going to be weird,” Wray says with a laugh. “I left this place 25 years ago as a player and came back as a coach. It feels natural, though. It’s nice to walk into the coaches’ office and see all the familiar faces I worked with for so long.”
Oulahen says the feeling was mutual, “It was good to see him, even though, you spend so much time together as coaches, you probably spend more time with each other than you do with your wife.”
Wray said that was another special moment in coming back to North Bay, “It was nice to see my wife for the first time in two weeks to, she hasn’t been able to get down to Owen Sound yet. But it’s nice to get here and get a game under our belts.”
