Kansas City Outlaws

The Kansas City Outlaws were a professional ice hockey team, a former member of the UHL. They played their home games at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, where the NHL's Kansas City Scouts played for two seasons during the 1970s, and later the International Hockey League's Kansas City Blades made their home.

Overview

In June of 2004, the United Hockey League awarded the Kansas City franchise to Stephen Franke, co-owner of the UHL's Fort Wayne Komets. The team announced that they would begin play that fall.

The Outlaws began their lone season by winning back-to-back home games against cross-state rival Missouri River Otters, and running up a 5-1 record in the first two weeks. From then, the team's fortunes changed drastically, and the Outlaws finished last in the Western Division in 2004-2005 with a record of 28-45-7 (wins, losses and overtime losses).

Rob Schweyer was named the team's first captain, but when he left the team following an injury, Player/Assistant Coach Jason Ruff received the captain designation. Ruff went on to lead the Outlaws in scoring.

Star players for the Outlaws included Ruff, goaltender Maxime Gingras, winger Joe Seroski, defenseman Matthieu Descoteaux, and center Mark Lee. Lee started his professional tenure with the Outlaws, which jump started his career in the American Hockey League, and the East Coast Hockey League. [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=73175]

The Outlaws were coached by Darryl Williams. Joe Bucchino, formerly of the Boston Bruin and New York Ranger organizations, served as General Manager. Richard Adler was the team President, responsible for day-to-day business operations.

The team had struggled to attract fans, as the reported attendance was "around 2,800" per game according to team officials [http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2005/04/11/daily20.html.

The team played their final game, an 8-1 win over the Komets on April 10, 2005. Following the finale, it was reported three days later that a local printing company, Superior Color Graphics LLC, had filed a lawsuit for non-payment against the team. The lawsuit was reported to be in totaling $45,777.56. [http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2005/04/11/daily20.html] The lawsuit was eventually dismissed. Around this time rumors began to circulate the team would move to Toledo, Ohio the following season.On April 15, 2005, the team suspended operations and eventually folded, ending their tenure in Kansas City and in the UHL. [http://home.att.net/~kchockey/kctime.htm]

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050710080614/http://www.kansascityoutlaws.com/ official website] (archive.org copy)