Denver Cutthroats | |
---|---|
City | Denver, Colorado |
League | Central Hockey League |
Conference | Berry |
Founded | 2012 |
Operated | 2012–2014 |
Home arena | Denver Coliseum |
Colors |
Blue, Green, Red, White |
Owner(s) | John Hayes |
General manager | Derek Armstrong |
Head coach | Brad Smyth |
Franchise history | |
2012–2014 | Denver Cutthroats |
Championships | |
Ray Miron President's Cup | None |
The Denver Cutthroats were a minor league ice hockey team, as a member of the Central Hockey League, that began play in the 2012–13 season. They served as a farm team of the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche and the American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters. Based in Denver, Colorado, the Cutthroats played their home games at the Denver Coliseum. On August 20, 2014, after only two seasons in the CHL, the Cutthroats announced they would go dormant for the 2014–15 season, with hopes to gain additional investors for 2015–16.
Besides sharing the city/market with their parent club the Avalanche, the Cutthroats were the fifth hockey team to play at the Denver Coliseum, after the original International Hockey League's Denver Mavericks (1958–59), the original Western Hockey League's Denver Invaders (1963–64), the Denver Spurs of the WHL (and later the original Central Hockey League) (1968–75), and finally the IHL's Denver Rangers (1987–89).
Reports of a CHL team playing at the Coliseum for 2012-13 came as early as February, with initial reports stating they would be named the Denver Grizzlies, after the city's most recent IHL franchise which won the Turner Cup in its only season in the city and is widely credited for garnering enough interest to entice the Quebec Nordiques to relocate to Denver and become the Colorado Avalanche. However, once the team was officially announced on April 10, 2012, it was confirmed the team would not go by the "Denver Grizzlies" name because of unspecified copyright issues (likely related to the Utah Grizzlies ownership of said name). Although the team had registered the "Denver Cutthroats" name with the city and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the name was still not officially announced, with the team holding a "Guess the Name" contest in the meantime.