Hitmen name Ray Payne travelling scout

Press Release

Calgary, AB – Calgary Hitmen General Manager, Executive Vice President and Alternate Governor Kelly Kisio announced today Ray Payne (pain) has been named the club’s new travelling scout.

Payne, from North Vancouver, BC, joins the Hitmen after a lengthy National Hockey League scouting career.

During his most recent role, Payne spent two seasons with the Vancouver Canucks. In year one he served as Ontario Scout before advancing to Associate Head Scout.

Prior to his time with the Canucks he spent three seasons as Western Canadian Scout for the Washington Capitals, 12 seasons with the San Jose Sharks, the first four as Eastern Scouting Supervisor and the last eight as Chief Scout. Payne also worked one season as a part time scout for the Minnesota North Stars.

“Ray’s impressive resume speaks for itself,” says Kisio. “He has a long history of identifying talent and we expect him to be a huge asset to our organization.”

“I am very excited about this opportunity to get back into scouting,” explains Payne. “I’m also looking forward to working with everyone in the Hitmen organization to help the franchise win another Ed Chynoweth Cup.”

Payne’s extensive hockey background, which spans more than 30 years, includes a stop with Hockey Canada. There he served as Director of Scouting assisting in building Canada's gold medal winning national junior team for the 1996 World Junior Championship in Boston, MA.

He also evaluated and selected the 20 players for the Pacific Cup Under-18 team that won the Silver medal in 1995 and the Gold medal in the 1996. In addition he assisted in evaluating the country's talented pool of players at the 1995 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Moncton, NB.

Payne replaces Dan Bonar who earlier this month was promoted into the role of Head Scout.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)