The Inaugural Season…How It All Began

It was 1990 and hockey was coming back to Kansas City after a thirteen-year absence. On March 15, 1990, the Kansas City, Missouri city council approved a contract with Calgary businessman Russ Parker to bring professional hockey to town. By the end of April, that team had been given a name after a Name The Team Contest, and that name was the Kansas City Blades.
In July of 1990, former NHL goaltender Doug Soetaert was hired to be the Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations. In August, he had signed the very first Blade, Rick Barkovich. Over a month later, the team opened training camp at Bode Ice Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri (about an hour north of KC).
On October 5, 1990 the Blades played their first game against the Phoenix Roadrunners, with a starting line up of Randy Exelby in goal, Cam Plante  and Claude Julien at D, Rick Barkovich at center, Mike Hiltner at right wing, and Darin Smith at left wing. The Blades did not win or score a goal in that first game, but Jim Latos served the first minor penalty at 3:34 of the 1st period. Jeff Odgers served the first misconduct penalty in that game at 13:09 of the 1st period.
The Blades would finally get their first goal in an October 10 meeting with the Peoria Rivermen. Ron Handy scored at 11:48 of the 1st period, with an assist from Kurt Semandel. The Blades still didn’t have a win, though.
On October 12, the Blades had their first hat trick recorded by center Ron Handy against the Peoria Rivermen. Those three goals still weren’t enough to propel the Blades to their first win.
Finally, on October 24, 1990 the Blades beat the Salt Lake Golden Eagles with center Mike Kelfer scoring the game-winning goal at 5:36 of the 2nd period.
Over the course of the season, head coach Doug Soetaert had several issues with the officiating in the league. It all came to a head on February 19 when Soetaert was suspended for three games for throwing garbage cans and hockey sticks on ice. He was fined an undisclosed amount. Soetaert was protesting the refereeing in an 8-4 loss to Peoria Rivermen. This incident made it to TV programs Sports Center and George Michael’s Sports Machine.
The Blades finished that first season with a record of 25-53-0-4. They did not make the playoffs. They had an average attendance of 5,726 come to Kemper Arena to see them play.
“When the puck drops, you have to be there. A lot of times, we haven’t been,” Coach Doug Soetaert said at one point during this rocky start for the organization. Given the Blades record this season, it seems most of the time they weren’t there.

Jersey Number	Position	Player	Seasons with Team
26	C	Brad Aitken	1990-1991
7, 22	RW	Andy Akervik	1990-1992
22	C	Rick Barkovich	1990-1991
3	D	Mike Berger	1990-1991
3	D	Aris Brimanis	1999-2000
6, 9	D	Jim Burke	1990-1991
29	G	Paul Cohen	1990-1991
17	LW	Ed Cristofoli	1990-1991
25	D	Jim Culhane	1990-1991
31	G	Randy Exelby	1990-1991
33, 31	G	Wade Flaherty	1990-1994
10, 20	LW/C	Troy Fredrick	1990-1994
23, 28	D	Link Gaetz	1990-1993
16, 32	RW	Lee Giffin	1990-1991, 1996-1997
9	LW	Mike Gober	1990-1991
16	LW	Brent Grieve	1990-1991
9, 12	C	Ron Handy	1990-1993
11	RW	Mike Hiltner	1990-1992
31	G	Bruce Hoffort	1990-1991
26	C	Kim Issel	1990-1991
8	C	Jeff Jablonski	1990-1991
5	D	Claude Julien	1990-1991
16, 19	C	Mark Karpen	1990-1991
19	C	Mike Kelfer	1990-1991
10	RW	Stu Kulak	1990-1991
2	D	Hank Lammens	1990-1991
23	RW	Jim Latos	1990-1991
15	LW	Keith Miller	1990-1991
2	D	Al Murphy	1990-1991
9	D	Mike Murray	1990-1991
18, 28	LW	Jeff Odgers	1990-1992
25	D	Ron Pesetti	1990-1991
4	D	Cam Plante	1990-1991
31	G	John Reid	1990-1991
21	D	Claudio Scremin	1990-1998
26, 16	RW	Kurt Semandel	1990-1991
14	LW	Darin Smith	1990-1991
24	D	Darren Stolk	1990-1991
11, 15, 23, 18	RW	Kevin Sullivan	1990-1992
6	D	Mark Vichorek	1990-1991
24	D	Scott White	1990-1991
8	C	Dan Woodley	1990-1991