It would be naive to think that the 2024-2025 edition of the Sudbury Wolves will not encounter challenges.

When they do, however, leaning on someone who has overcome hurdles and then some will be but a stone's throw away.

For as much as the accomplishments of incoming head coach Scott Barney have been well documented following a five year stint with the Humboldt Broncos and all that this entails, the fact is the former NHL second round pick can point to a resume as a player that screams of resilience and perseverance.

Few in the hockey world likely gave the Oshawa/Courtice native much of a chance to ever see the light of an NHL arena after missing three full years of hockey dealing with back issues.

Following a very successful four year OHL career with the Peterborough Petes (1995-1999 - 243 points in 230 games), Barney would earn a brief five game year-end call-up with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League.

"In my last year of junior, I could feel it (the injury) coming - and when I went to the AHL, I realized I could not play," recalled the now father of two.

Spending the next three years on a never-ending roller coaster ride of visits to doctors, a pair of back surgeries and endless hours of rehabilitation would produce easily as many setbacks as reasons for optimism.

"It got to the point where I didn't want to go to a hockey rink, with people telling me I was done, I was finished," said the 45 year-old who these days now blessed with a wonderfully wide-ranging perspective on sport and life.

"I wanted to prove people wrong."

Thanks to the work of Olympic athletic therapist and osteopath Dave Campbell in Montreal and Guelph Gryphons' head athletic Therapist Dave Wright in Toronto, the tide began to turn.

"It was definitely a weird feeling getting back on the ice," said Barney, who suited up in 57 games with the Manchester Monarchs in 2002-2003, earning a five game stint that year with the Los Angeles Kings.

"Things were progressing; I was getting stronger."

Though his NHL career maxed out at 27 games, with another four seasons of AHL play to follow, Barney had overcome, beating all odds.

"It definitely made me a better person in the end, going through struggles," he stated. "It's helped me remain in the here and now and deal with certain situations and adversity."

It may have even equipped the gold medal winner at both the World U17 and U18 tournaments with the type of mindset allows one to see the positive in much that comes his way - including the transition from the North American pro game to his European and Asian stint as a player, a stretch that would cover much of the ensuing decade.

"Looking back, I probably should have gone over (to Europe) earlier," suggested Barney. "We really enjoyed Europe: the different countries and different cultures. It's all come full circle, the benefit of getting exposed to what each of those countries do and how they train their athletes."

For the record, Barney and company would enjoy stops in: Germany, Finland, Czechia, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, South Korea and China.

Throw in the Humboldt experience that earned the highly skilled 6'4" forward who most admired Mario Lemieux in his minor hockey days a great deal of praise and what emerges is a coach with NHL aspirations whose primary focus is getting to know his players, well beyond their on-ice talents.

"For me, you have to know the personalities before you can coach them," said Barney. "You have 23 different personalities. You have to know each one in order to get the most out of them."

His character might be key, but Scott Barney is not without a very thorough understanding of the game of hockey, a wealth of knowledge accumulated from a very young age.

"My dad would always take me to the rinks and I would always sit there and watch," he noted. "Other kids would run around, but I would try and emulate different things that other players were doing, even in minor hockey."

"I believe that hockey sense is a big part of the game."

And for as much as Barney still has vivid memories of his treks to Sudbury as an OHL star, the hockey that he now shapes and moulds will bear little resemblance to those battles of the late nineties.

"The game is played fast now," he said. "If you want to play at the next level, you have to be able to play the game fast. It's the little habits of the game that are sometimes missed, that attention to detail."

"Building the right culture is huge."

And nobody is likely to be as appreciative to simply be in the rink as new Sudbury Wolves' head coach Scott Barney.