Wichita Thunder turn to franchise legend to revive winning hockey
Travis Clayton knows what winning hockey felt like in Wichita.
He remembers the noise inside the building, the bite in the Thunder’s game, the way a blue-collar team could pull a blue-collar fan base into the fight with every hit and hard shift.
Now one of the most accomplished players in franchise history has been handed the responsibility of trying to bring that feeling back.
The Wichita Thunder announced Tuesday afternoon that Clayton, a franchise legend who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach, has been hired as the team’s new head coach. Contract details for Clayton were not made immediately available.
“It means a lot to me because this is where my pro career started,” Clayton said. “I played 11 years here. I’ve had a lot of real good memories here. My wife is from here, my oldest boy was born here. I’m pretty excited to be able to come back and say I’m the head coach for the Wichita Thunder. I’m ready to bring a winning culture and give the fans what they were used to when I was playing.”
Clayton, 49, takes over a franchise in need of a reset.
The Thunder are coming off a 25-35-8-4 season in which they finished 14th out of 15 teams in the ECHL’s Western Conference. Wichita did qualify for the playoffs in 2025, but was swept in the first round. The franchise has not won a playoff series since 2013.
That is the challenge Clayton inherits: reviving a proud hockey city that still remembers when the Thunder were a regular playoff presence and Clayton was one of the faces of the franchise.
Clayton played in Wichita from 1997 to 2008, a stretch in which the Thunder qualified for the playoffs seven times and reached the 1998 Finals. Few players in franchise history are more connected to the Thunder record book.
He ranks second in team history in goals with 326, second in assists with 508, second in points with 834 and second in games played with 696. He is the franchise leader in power-play goals with 110, shorthanded goals with 26, game-winning goals with 50 and plus/minus at plus-108. He also ranks second in penalty minutes with 1,063.
But the job now is different. Clayton is no longer being asked to drive the Thunder’s offense. He is being asked to build the roster, set the standard and create the identity.
“It’s all about recruiting, right?” Clayton said. “The biggest thing is getting out there and making calls, calling your connections, getting your name out there. So now it’s go time for us and I’m excited about that.”
Clayton believes his years in the game can help Wichita immediately. He said he has former teammates who are now agents, coaches or otherwise involved in hockey, and he has already begun using those relationships to search for players who fit what he wants the Thunder to become.
His coaching background also extends beyond Wichita. Clayton began his coaching career with the Western States Hockey League’s Dallas Snipers in 2012-13. He later returned to Canada and spent three seasons leading the Lloydminster Bobcats under-18 AAA program. His most recent stop before returning to Wichita came with the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Whitecourt Wolverines during the 2021-22 season.
Clayton, a native of Saskatchewan, spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach under Bruce Ramsay. Ramsay mutually agreed to leave the Thunder and has since joined the Tulsa Oilers as an associate coach.
Clayton credited Ramsay for giving him a pathway back to Wichita and a closer look at what it takes behind the bench at the professional level.
“I appreciate Rammer for giving me a chance to come in here and learn under him,” Clayton said. “He let me do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, so I give him a lot of credit that way. I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him bringing me on as an assistant coach for the last two years and gaining that experience.”
While there will be roster decisions, recruiting calls and organizational work ahead, Clayton made it clear Tuesday that he already knows what kind of team he wants Wichita to see.
He wants a Thunder team that skates. He wants one that finishes checks. He wants one that is unpleasant to play against.
“The biggest thing that I want is speed, physicality and a team that’s going to be hard to play against,” Clayton said. “I want a blue-collar team because I know Wichita fans like that and they thrive off that. I remember that’s how it was when I played here. Obviously the game has a changed, but I still think there’s a place to play hard hockey and I believe in that.”
That message should resonate in a city where Clayton’s best years remain part of the franchise’s memory. The Thunder have been waiting more than a decade for another postseason breakthrough. Clayton’s task is to turn nostalgia into something more useful.
Not just a reminder of what Wichita hockey used to be.
A blueprint for what it can become again.
“I want guys who are going to come in here and compete and work hard every day,” Clayton said. “I want physical, hard-nosed guys who are hard to play against and are going to make teams fear coming to play us here in Wichita. If we play that way in the regular season, then I think it will carry over into the playoffs and that’s going to lead us to success.”
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