The journey from North Bay, Ontario to Clarks Summit spans roughly 525 miles. Not much of a haul for native Canadian and former professional hockey player, Ray Giroux. However, the life of a hockey player tends to run a more circuitous route.

From a quiet, sport-filled, suburban childhood in Canada to his 1st-team All-American college days at Yale, Ray’s formative years, in many ways, revolved around competition. And it paid off. He soon found himself in the NHL – with the NY Islanders, the NJ Devils and the Minnesota Wild. From there, he played in the AHL at Albany, Lowell, Bridgeport and Houston. He then chased his life’s passion overseas to Finland, Sweden, Russia and even Siberia.

Somewhere, in all of that moving around, he met a girl named Megan from Green Ridge and she brought him home to meet the family. The rest is history – one involving marriage, a big, extended family, three wonderful children and a dog. Ray quickly fell in love with NEPA. And, as his 15-year pro hockey career came to a close, he took up coaching with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Jr. Knights at Revolution Ice Centre in Pittston. He’s also COO of Live Barn, a video streaming a service for youth/amateur hockey and other sports.

We caught up with Ray in the pool house at his family’s stunning home on a rolling hillside in Clarks Summit. And while he walked us down the long, winding road of his hockey career and family life (which also involves a lot of hockey), we snuck in a few questions like Why NEPA?

How long have you lived in NEPA?

That’s a hard one. We’ve lived all over, but I’d say 15 years. You know, before we built our house here and set permanent roots down, I was still playing hockey overseas and that meant a lot of moving around, so I’d say it’s the better part of 15 years we’ve been here.

What do you love about your town?

The first time I came to the Scranton area in a non-hostile hockey environment was to meet my wife’s family. They lived in Clarks Summit, and I fell in love with the Abington area. I loved the neighborhood/country-ish community feel of it, and my wife had a family reunion that weekend as well. So, it was just a very family-oriented moment and meeting everybody in the extended family reminded me of where I grew up. I was meeting all these wonderful people and getting to know the area and how it’s so close to New York and so many other things, yet far enough away from everything to feel like it was a great place to raise your kids.

What’s your favorite NEPA restaurant?

Oh, I think it’s definitely situational. It depends what you’re looking for, right? If you’re looking for a great chicken sandwich and some good specials with a good cocktail, I like Jack’s Draft House down in Scranton. For breakfast and a coffee, we like to go to No. 27 Café inside Central Park Flowers here in Clarks Summit. There’s Alter House, if we’re going for a quiet, yet still somehow lively kind of dinner. And I love to try new restaurants, and there’s Pizza Althea in Pittston. It’s in the old bank. That place is great and it’s close to the rink.

What’s your favorite thing to do in NEPA?

My winters are pretty chaotic with travel sports, and coaching the Knights. So, I’m always pretty busy, but in the summertime, I have a little more time on my hands. I love being outside. I crave and love sunny days in Northeastern PA. I think they’re some of the best days. So, whether it’s walking the dog or trying to play as much golf as I can. Mostly, I just relax and spend time with the family out by the pool.

We enjoy traveling a bit and entertaining family from out of town. I have a brother in New York City. He and his family like getting out of the city, so they come up here. We just like getting back outdoors whenever we can since we’re traveling a lot for hockey and work. We go hiking every now and then. We go up to Keystone Campus or down to the Delaware Water Gap. And, of course, there’s still sports. Our youngest plays little league. Our daughter plays lacrosse, so we just basically go from winter sports to summer sports.

What’s next for you?

That’s a pretty interesting question. You know, I try not to get too far out. We definitely love it here – especially in the summertime. And our kids are relatively young — the oldest in high school and the youngest in elementary. So, I don’t see us going anywhere for a while, but I can definitely see down the road a bit a situation where there’s a tie here in the summer and maybe we have a little more freedom to go somewhere for the winter. But that’s when all the kids are in college and I’m not coaching as much. It’s hard to predict where you’ll be, but I don’t see us going anywhere for a while. You know, I really enjoy the area, and I certainly don’t see myself moving back to Canada.

We prefer it slow rather than that faster pace to life. And it’s great to have major cities nearby and we’re close to the airport here, so it’s not hard for us to get away if we wanted to – wherever that may be. But, at the same time, we really enjoy the space and the quiet that we have here. So, wherever we end up, it would definitely be a hybrid scenario where we’re always coming back home here.

Where do you see NEPA heading in the future?

If you ask me, I think it’s still a little bit under-discovered. And I say that because I’m a transplant who has friends all over the place. And a prime example of that is friends who live in New York, or places like Connecticut who come all the way to NEPA to play golf at The Country Club of Scranton. And then they become out-of-town members because they love the community and the area. Maybe it reminds them of home, or just some simpler way of doing things. And I think that’s happened a lot more over the last few years, where working situations have changed, and I think a lot of people have come back to the Scranton area. Like my father-in-law says, “All roads lead back to Scranton.” And it’s true, you know? People realized that it’s a great place to raise kids. And I think that’s one of the greatest benefits of the area.

But the challenge is that you kind of want to keep it that way. So, you almost want to keep your hidden gems hidden, I guess, but you also need to promote that in order to keep growing. What I’ve noticed, I guess, is that I see more and more people appreciating this area more. As technology advances and the world kind of gets closer to us, I think more people will appreciate the landscape, the people and the overall feeling of Northeastern PA.

Why NEPA?

I think when you combine all the elements. it reminds me of where I grew up. It’s a truly safe community. It’s a great place to be a kid and to have all this access to nature. Then, you have the proximity to major metropolitan areas. And, of course, we have all of this amazing family here. I think the cost of living relative to different areas is a huge advantage. And my involvement with Revolution Ice Centre and the ownership group there is fantastic. Our kids love it here. I mean, if you break it down and weigh all the pros and cons, I think the pros far outweigh the cons. At the end of the day, we’re here because we love it here… Other than this winter being a little colder than most, it’s a great place to be. I’m from Canada though, so I guess I really shouldn’t complain, right?