Ryan Oulahen is unique among the 211 players in the Brampton
Battalion’s 15-year history: He’s the only one who returned to the club as a
coach.
Centre Oulahen played 182 games over three seasons and captained
the Troops in 2004-05, his final campaign. A fifth-round pick by the Detroit
Red Wings in the National Hockey League’s 2003 Entry Draft, Oulahen played four
seasons with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s American Hockey League
affiliate. A hip injury brought his career to a premature end after the 2008-09
season, and he returned to the Battalion in January, 2011, as an assistant
coach under Stan Butler.
“Everyone has a different path to getting somewhere,” the
27-year-old Oulahen said before a recent practice. “It was great to play here
for three seasons, be a captain for my final season and go on to a pro career.
I was looking for a way to get back in the game, and to be able to make the
transition to coaching in a place like Brampton was pretty easy for me. I was
familiar with the surroundings and how the organization was run.”
Oulahen, who did some duty on the Griffins’ bench in
2009-10, figured he had plenty to offer in a return to the Ontario Hockey
League.
“I was fresh from my playing days. I took about six months
away from the game, and when I came back to coach I was about five years
removed from the end of my career here. I knew about the little details, like
the school schedules and what it was like to play here and go to university. I
had been through it and could give the guys a lot of guidance.”
A fourth-round pick in the 2001 OHL Priority Selection,
Oulahen, a resident of Newmarket, Ont., decided to enlist with the Troops after
meeting with Butler following an 8-2 loss to the visiting Erie Otters on March
10, 2002.
“I talked about it with my parents, and it was ultimately my
decision. I remember coming in here to talk to Stan after that game. I had a
good feeling. I don’t know what it was, but it was exciting to sit here that
day and watch guys like Jay Harrison and Jay McClement play. It sounded like a
great opportunity for me and my family. I could go to York University after I
finished high school. Everything we talked about that day came to fruition, and
I had a great career here.”
Said Butler: “From the time he came here as a 17-year-old,
Ryan handled himself well. He was a professional from the first time he came
here. I always knew he’d be a good coach if he got into it, and with a little
more seasoning he could be a very good coach going forward.”
Oulahen debuted with the Battalion in 2002-03 as one of a
number of outstanding rookies that included forwards Brent Burns, Jamie Fraser
and Wojtek Wolski, defencemen Martin Lojek and Stuart Simmons and goaltender
Kevin Couture.
“That was a great group of guys,” said Oulahen. “That was
probably the most memorable season I had. It was great being able to come in as
a young guy and being able to look up to a guy like McClement and Chris Rowan
and Ryan Bowness. There were guys like me, Burns and Fraser who didn’t really
start to excel until after Christmas. The months of December and January might
have the most impressive months of my OHL career. We’d all played a lot, and
Stan stuck with us.”
Oulahen, who missed seven late-season games after suffering
a knee injury in a 2-1 overtime win over the host Toronto St. Michael’s Majors
on Feb. 23, recorded 43 points, including 21 goals, in 61 games. He said he
found a mentor in captain McClement, who was in his final season with the
Troops.
“I could relate to him. We were similar players, even if McClement
produced more at this level than I did. I had to do the same thing he did when
I went to the pros. I was a third- or fourth-line guy, a penalty killer, and I
knew my role and did it. He was always a guy I could draw on, particularly when
I became captain.”
Oulahen, named an alternate captain in 2003-04, sat out 11
games after being elbowed in the head from behind by Brandon Prust of the
London Knights in a 6-1 home-ice loss Nov. 23.
Oulahen scored 17 goals and added 18 assists for 35 points
in 57 games in a season that saw captain Bowness traded to the Oshawa Generals.
With several veterans from 2002-03 lost to graduation or the
pro ranks and Burns off to the NHL’s Minnesota Wild at 18, the Battalion won only
25 games, the fewest since it won eight games as an expansion team, and got
into the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.
“There were high expectations for us heading into that
season,” said Oulahen. “All of a sudden Burns doesn’t come back, and guys who
were expected to have big years struggled. I was injured, and that was a tough
season for me, but it’s something I can always draw upon as a coach. I talk to
the guys about how we learned to get through it, how we fought through things
as individuals. You needed a lot of mental toughness to get through a season
like that if things aren’t going your way.”
The Troops drew the high-powered Ottawa 67’s in a conference
quarterfinal, and Oulahen got the assignment of shutting down fellow Newmarket
resident Corey Locke, the OHL’s two-time scoring champion. Locke had four
points, including three goals, in a 7-5 win at home in the series opener but managed
just six points the rest of the way as the Battalion emerged with a seven-game
upset.
“We lost that first game and never looked back,” said
Oulahen, who contributed eight points, including two goals, in the series. “All
season we knew what we had here. We were struggling with injuries and other
things. I think we knew that if we matched up with Ottawa we could win that
series. We’d had success against them during the season. Winning that series
gave us some satisfaction heading into the summer.”
The deciding game, a 3-1 win at Ottawa, was the only game in
which Locke and Oulahen both failed to register a point. Victory came with a
price for Oulahen.
“That was the game where I got a tooth knocked out on the
first shift. I came back to the bench, and Brad Handley, who was the trainer at
the time, helped me out and I played the rest of that game with pain, but I
loved every second of it. I’ll never forget the satisfaction when the buzzer
went at the end of Game 7 when I thought of that accomplishment.”
As a 19-year-old in 2004-05, Oulahen enjoyed the finest
offensive season of his OHL career, scoring 27 goals and adding 31 assists for 58
points in 64 games, third in team scoring behind Wolski and Luch Aquino.
The Troops enjoyed a fine season but lost four of their
final six games to finish fourth in the conference, getting a quarterfinal date
with the Sudbury Wolves.
“I think that last weekend really hurt,” said Oulahen. “We
could have finished anywhere from second to fourth, and we lost here to
Peterborough. We fell to the fourth spot and ended up with Sudbury. If we’d
ended up with a different seed, who knows what happens in the playoffs.
“We stress to the guys here now that a game early in the
season might not be that huge at the time but, if you lose, those points might
come back to get you later.”
The Battalion lost the opener in overtime at home and
dropped a 4-1 decision at Sudbury in Game 2. The Troops pushed the series to a
sixth game with a 4-2 win at home in Game 5, but it came at a cost, as Oulahen
left the ice on a stretcher courtesy of an elbow to the head from Zack
Stortini. That game would be the last of Oulahen’s junior career. He watched
from the stands in Sudbury as the Wolves finished the series with a 5-4 win in
double overtime.
“We knew going into that series it would be a tough battle. We
were so close in the standings; all the games were tight. Losing the first game
in overtime made it really tough for us. I was on the ice when that goal was
scored, and I knew we had to go to their rink the next night and that was a
tough place to play. Losing that first game put us behind the 8-ball, and there
was some tough sledding the rest of the way. For me, watching from the stands
in Game 6, it was tough. I wish I’d been on the ice. You always wonder, ‘What
if?’”
Oulahen, married with a young son and another child on the
way, is unsure whether he’ll accompany the Troops to North Bay next season.
“I knew there was a chance the team could move, and when the
actual news came it was shocking. All we can do as players and coaches is worry
about this season. North Bay will be a great opportunity in a great hockey city,
and that’s all you can ask for.”
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