One on One with Markus - Kyle Raftis

Kyle Raftis grew up in a family that didn't have a strong connection with hockey.

But Raftis knew the sport was his passion. He got drafted to the Ontario Hockey League and played for a number of teams, including Oshawa, Kingston and Peterborough.

"I have a lot of people in my family who are fans of hockey but I don't have one member of my family I think that's really played hockey at any high level," he said.

Now, Raftis is the general manager of one of the most successful teams this year in the OHL. The Sault Greyhounds have the best record in the league this season and lead their first playoff series against Saginaw 3-0.

Going pro

Before returning back to the OHL, Raftis went pro for a few games with the Muskegon Fury, an International Hockey League (now called United Hockey League) team based in Michigan.

He says his experience with that league was brief but memorable.

"That hockey's very underrated," he said.

"I think when you see that hockey played it's at high level."

He considered playing with another pro league, but decided to focus on his education instead.

"You want to play as long as you can but at the same time you want to make sure that you're kind of reaching all your goals in life," he said.

Raftis took business management and economics at Dalhousie University. He managed to graduate in three years instead of four and was offered a job at the OHL office. He worked in player development, recruitment and education.

Heading to northern Ontario

Former general manager of the team Kyle Dubas eventually left to be the assistant manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"I got a call from someone in the Sault Greyhounds organization to say 'hey, would you be open in hearing about this position?'" he said.

"I was familiar with the staff and when they asked me to come in to hear more about the program here and the people that work here and the opportunity it was something that became on my side of it made more and more sense."

He says he hasn't looked back since, describing the job as a "jack of all trades."

"Depending on the time of year, it could be business focused, it could be on ice focused, it could be the scouting focus to make about the future," he said.

"It's kind of a little bit of everything here in the Sault."