‘My heart is in Wichita’: Former Thunder hockey legend hired as assistant coach

A franchise legend is returning to the Wichita Thunder as an assistant coach.

Travis Clayton, who was a star forward for the Thunder from 1997-08, was announced as the team’s new assistant coach for the 2024-25 season earlier this week. He replaces John Gurskis, who was recently named head coach of the Knoxville Ice Bears in the SPHL.

After retiring as a professional hockey player in 2012, the Saskatchewan native returned to Canada to coach youth hockey. Clayton, 48, will join the staff of head coach Bruce Ramsay, who was his teammate on the Thunder during the 2000-01 season, for his first professional coaching job.

“I spent 11 years in Wichita and I have a lot of great memories there,” Clayton told The Eagle. “The organization treated me well, the city treated me well, the fans treated me well. I met my wife (Toby) there. My oldest boy was born in Wichita. To be able to get back to Wichita, this is the perfect place for me and I’m really excited for this opportunity.”

What Clayton lacks in professional experience as a coach, he hopes to make up for in knowledge from a standout career as a player.

He is considered by some to be the best player in Thunder franchise history, while Clayton paired with Jason Duda to form one of the most formidable tandems in the Central Hockey League. Clayton led the CHL twice in points (2003, 2005) and ranks near the top of essentially every offensive category in Wichita history: second in goals (326), second in assists (508), second in points (834), second in games played (696), first in power-play goals (110), first in game-winning goals (50) and first in plus-minus (plus-108).

“I would consider myself a player’s coach,” Clayton said. “I think the biggest thing that players want is honesty. Someone that they can trust and go to with anything. I think if you have that connection with players, they’ll do anything for you. I just love the game and love giving back to the game, so any way I can help these guys out and try to give them some of my knowledge to help further their careers, I’m going to do anything I can for them.”

Clayton has long awaited his chance to reach the professional coaching ranks and has ambitions of moving up, like most coaches.

But he couldn’t have picked a better start for his coaching career than Wichita. His only focus now is to help the Thunder end their three-year playoff drought when the season begins on Friday, Oct. 18 against the Kansas City Mavericks at Intrust Bank Arena.

“My heart is in Wichita,” Clayton said. “Not that I wouldn’t be invested for another team, but I’ve got a real connection there. I want to see this organization get back to winning ways. We’ve got some great players coming in and I just want to do my part and help Bruce out and hopefully make the playoffs and then you never know what could happen.”