Kansas City Scouts
Encyclopedia
The Kansas City Scouts was a professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 (NHL) from 1974–76. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 and became the Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies (NHL)
The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were a relocation of the Kansas City Scouts, a 1974 expansion team. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1982 and was...

. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 where they are now known as the New Jersey Devils
New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...

.

Franchise history

In 1974, the NHL ended its first expansion
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...

 period by adding teams in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 Kansas City was awarded a franchise on June 8, 1972, and Kemper Arena
Kemper Arena
Kemper Arena is a 19,500 seat indoor arena, in Kansas City, Missouri.It is named for R. Crosby Kemper Sr., a member of the powerful Kemper financial clan and who donated $3.2 million, from his estate for the arena...

 was constructed to host the team's games. Kansas City had been the home of several minor league ice hockey teams through the years. The Scouts shared Kemper Arena with the Kansas City Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...

 basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 franchise from the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

. The arrival of the Scouts and Washington Capitals
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Since their founding in 1974, "The Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup...

 resulted in the NHL creating four divisions, and the Scouts were placed in the Smythe Division
Smythe Division
The NHL's Smythe Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Clarence Campbell Conference. The division existed for 19 seasons until 1993. It was named in honor of Conn Smythe. It is the fore-runner of the NHL's Northwest Division and NHL's Pacific Division....

.

The Kansas City franchise was to be called the Kansas City Mohawks, since the Kansas City metropolitan area includes portions of Missouri and Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

. The name would have combined Missouri's postal abbreviation (MO) and the Kansas nickname of "Jayhawkers." However, the Chicago Black Hawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 objected because "Mohawks" sounded too much like "Black Hawks." The team then chose the name Scouts, named after The Scout which is located in Penn Valley Park
Penn Valley Park
Penn Valley Park is an urban park overlooking Downtown Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri.The park was developed in 1904 on land through which the Santa Fe Trail had passed. It contains two famous landmarks: The Scout and the United States' official World War I museum with its Liberty Memorial...

 and overlooks downtown
Downtown Kansas City
Downtown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...

. The iconic statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

 was featured on the team's logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

.

On October 9, 1974, the Scouts took the ice for the first time at Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens
Maple Leaf Gardens is an indoor arena that was converted into a Loblawssupermarket and Ryerson University athletic centre in Toronto, on the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto's Garden District.One of the temples of hockey, it was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the...

 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 and lost 6–2 to the Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...

. To allow construction to be completed on Kemper Arena, the Scouts played their first eight games on the road. In those eight games, the Scouts lost seven games and tied one game. The Scouts made their home debut on November 2, losing to the Black Hawks 4–3. The following day, the team got their first victory, coming against the Capitals by a score of 5–4 in Washington.

Like most expansion teams, the Scouts played poorly, garnering only 41 points in their inaugural season. The team's record of 15–54–11 would be the best of their two-season history.

The team's second season started out with some promise. For a time in late 1975, the team was poised to compete for a playoff spot. After a 3–1 win over the California Golden Seals
California Golden Seals
The California Golden Seals were a team in the National Hockey League from 1967–76. Initially named California Seals, the team was renamed Oakland Seals part-way through the 1967–68 season, and then to California Golden Seals in 1970. The Seals were one of six teams added to the league as part of...

 on December 28, they stood just one point behind the St. Louis Blues and playoff position in the weak Smythe Division. However, the Scouts went into free fall after Christmas. After going winless from December 30 to February 4 (0-14-2), they managed to defeat the Capitals on February 7. However, they went 0-21-6 for the rest of the season. All told, the Scouts went a hideous 1-35-8 in their final 44 games, finishing their second and final season with a record of 12–56–12 and 36 points—still the worst record in Scouts/Rockies/Devils history.

In their two seasons the Scouts went through three coaches–Bep Guidolin
Bep Guidolin
Armand "Bep" Guidolin was a Canadian National Hockey League player. He was born in Thorold, Ontario. He and Eleanor, his wife of 62 years, had four children....

, Sid Abel
Sid Abel
Sidney Gerald Abel was a Canadian professional hockey player and later coach in the National Hockey League...

 (3-game interim stint), and Eddie Bush
Eddie Bush
Edward Webster Bush was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played two seasons in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, and who coached for one season in the National Hockey League for the Kansas City Scouts.-External links:...

. The team had two captains, Simon Nolet
Simon Nolet
Simon Laurent Nolet is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played ten seasons in the National Hockey League , most notably for the Philadelphia Flyers...

 and Guy Charron
Guy Charron
Guy Joseph Jean Charron is a former professional ice hockey centre. He played in the NHL from 1969 – 1981...

. Steve Durbano
Steve Durbano
Harry Steven "Mental Case" Durbano was a professional ice hockey player noted for his villainous behavior on the ice and his larger-than-life persona off it....

 led the league in penalty minutes during the 1975–76 season. Wilf Paiement
Wilf Paiement
Wilfred Paiement, Jr. is a former professional ice hockey right winger in the NHL from 1974 through 1988, for six different NHL teams.-Playing career:...

 was the last active player in the NHL to have played for the Scouts. He retired in 1988, ending his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original...

. The Scouts failed to make the playoffs in either season in Kansas City and won only 27 of 160 games.

With a combined 32 teams between the NHL and the rival World Hockey Association
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...

, the talent available to stock the new teams in Kansas City and Washington was stretched thin. In their first season, the Capitals would set an NHL record for futility, losing 67 of 80 games, and only winning one on the road. The Scouts fared only marginally better, and the 1974 expansion was widely seen as having been a mistake.

The Scouts suffered from inflated player costs, a weak ownership group, an economic downturn in the Midwest, poor performance on the ice and poor attendance. The Scouts drew an average of just 8,218 fans during their two years in 17,000-seat Kemper Arena (at a time when the league average was approximately 13,000). The team's 37 owners, buried in debt, mounted a season-ticket drive to raise more revenue. However, when only 2,000 people bought tickets, they concluded that the Scouts were not a viable venture and opted to sell. While the Capitals were far worse on the ice, they were far better capitalized, and their owner, Abe Pollin
Abe Pollin
Abe Pollin was the owner of a number of professional sports teams including the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League , the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association , and the Washington Wizards in the National Basketball Association...

, had the resources and the patience to absorb the massive losses.

Relocation to Denver

After just two seasons, the Scouts franchise was sold to a group headed by Jack Vickers, who moved the team to Denver and renamed it the Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies (NHL)
The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were a relocation of the Kansas City Scouts, a 1974 expansion team. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1982 and was...

. The Colorado Rockies would play six NHL seasons in Denver, relocating to the east coast to become the New Jersey Devils
New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...

 following the 1982 season.

The Scouts and the California Golden Seals, who moved to Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 and became the Cleveland Barons
Cleveland Barons (NHL)
The Cleveland Barons were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League from 1976–78. They were a relocation of the California Golden Seals franchise, which had played in Oakland since 1967...

 the same year, were the first NHL teams to relocate since the 1935 season. Denver and Seattle were to have been granted franchises in an aborted 1976 NHL expansion.

Legacy

Following the departure of the Scouts, Kansas City became a minor league hockey town again, most notably with the Kansas City Blades
Kansas City Blades
The Kansas City Blades was a professional ice hockey team in the International Hockey League from 1990–2001 until the demise of the league after the 2000–01 season. The Blades was based in Kansas City, Missouri at Kemper Arena....

, which operated from 1990–2001 in the International Hockey League. Within a few years of the Blades' departure, plans started for what is now the Sprint Center
Sprint Center
Sprint Center is a large, multi-use indoor arena in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The building is located at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard, on the east side of the Power & Light District...

 in downtown Kansas City
Downtown Kansas City
Downtown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...

, which has led city officials to actively pursue a return to the NHL, speaking with several teams about possible relocation.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Season GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM Finish Playoffs
1974–75  80 15 54 11 41 184 328 744 5th in Smythe Division
Smythe Division
The NHL's Smythe Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Clarence Campbell Conference. The division existed for 19 seasons until 1993. It was named in honor of Conn Smythe. It is the fore-runner of the NHL's Northwest Division and NHL's Pacific Division....

 
Out of playoffs
1975–76  80 12 56 12 36 190 351 984 5th in Smythe Division Out of playoffs
Totals 160 27 110 23 77 374 679 1728

First round draft picks

  • 1974
    1974 NHL Amateur Draft
    The 1974 NHL Amateur Draft was held via conference call at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. In an effort to prevent the WHA from poaching players, the draft was conducted early and in secret. This failed to prevent tampering as information leaked out via agents and other sources over the three...

    : Wilf Paiement
    Wilf Paiement
    Wilfred Paiement, Jr. is a former professional ice hockey right winger in the NHL from 1974 through 1988, for six different NHL teams.-Playing career:...

     (2nd overall)
  • 1975
    1975 NHL Amateur Draft
    The 1975 NHL Amateur Draft was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers made the most noise at the draft, trading Bill Clement, Don McLean, and the 18th overall pick to the Washington Capitals for the number one overall selection,...

    : Barry Dean
    Barry Dean
    Barry James Dean is a retired former professional ice hockey player who was drafted second overall in the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft by the Kansas City Scouts...

     (2nd overall)

See also

  • 1974 NHL Expansion Draft
    1974 NHL Expansion Draft
    The 1974 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 12, 1974. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1974–75 season, the Kansas City Scouts and the Washington Capitals.-Draft desults:-See also:...

  • List of Kansas City Scouts players
  • List of Kansas City Scouts draft picks
  • List of Kansas City Scouts head coaches
  • List of defunct NHL teams
  • Colorado Rockies
    Colorado Rockies (NHL)
    The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were a relocation of the Kansas City Scouts, a 1974 expansion team. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1982 and was...

  • New Jersey Devils
    New Jersey Devils
    The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...


External links

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