Turner Cup Season

The Blades emerged from their first season with a losing record, something they would soon be turning around as the minor league affiliate of the NHL expansion San Jose Sharks. The Sharks picked a lot of future Blades in their expansion draft, one of those being the Peoria Rivermen’s MVP David Bruce from the St. Louis Blues. While Bruce spent most of the next two seasons struggling along with the expansion team, he saw a little bit of time with KC during 1991-1992. He eventually became a Blades mainstay following his time in the NHL.

In April 1991, Doug Soetaert was named General Manager of the team. That summer it was announced that Kevin Constantine would be the new head coach. The 1991-1992 season saw the Blades start off with a ten-game win streak, establishing their win streak record on October 26. As the season went along, the Blades had several winning streaks, nothing as impressive as the ten-game, but they did manage to put together an eight-game streak at one point.

With their winning ways, the Blades were able to clinch their very first IHL playoff spot early, doing so on February 19. They officially won the Western Conference Regular Season Championship on March 26. They went on to be awarded the Huber Trophy as the IHL’s regular season champions on April 3.

The Blades had blown through the regular season with a franchise best 56-22-4 record, 116 points. This was the best record in pro hockey and the largest regular season turn around. They showed a 62-point improvement over the 1990-91 season. The Blades also had their highest average attendance in their eleven season run with 7,285.

On April 10, the Blades began their incredible playoff run with their first-ever playoff-game win versus the Salt Lake Golden Eagles by a score of 5-3. The team finished that series off on April 18 winning their first playoff series four games to one. The Blades went on to face the Peoria Rivermen, they won that series four games to two. And on May 12, 1992, the second year Kansas City Blades were able to hoist the Turner Cup as champions of the International Hockey League after sweeping the Muskegon Lumberjacks in four games.

Jersey Number	Position	Player	Seasons with Team
7, 22	RW	Andy Akervik	1990-1992
7	D	John Blessman	1991-1992
16	D	Stephane Brochu	1991-1992
12, 25	LW	David Bruce	1991-1992, 1993-1998
20, 25	LW	John Carter	1991-1993
27	D	Mike Colman	1990-1994
22, 17, 26	C/RW	Ed Courtenay	1991-1994
23	RW	Craig Coxe	1991-1992
19, 26, 22, 29	C	Dale Craigwell	1991-1994, 1996-1999
31	LW	Larry DePalma	1991-1993
15	C	Gary Emmons	1991-1997
32, 19	LW	Kevin Evans	1991-1992, 1994-1995
33, 31	G	Wade Flaherty	1990-1994
5	D	Ryan Fox	1991-1992
28	LW/D	Gord Frantti	1991-1993
10, 20	LW/C	Troy Fredrick	1990-1994
23, 28	D	Link Gaetz	1990-1993
11, 16	C	Murray Garbutt	1991-1992
9, 12	C	Ron Handy	1990-1993
1	G	Brian Hayward	1991-1992
11	RW	Mike Hiltner	1990-1992
1, 30	G	Arturs Irbe	1991-1993, 1995-1996
3	D	Duane Joyce	1991-1995
29	D	Dean Kolstad	1991-1993
24	LW/RW	Mikhail Kravets	1991-1994
8	RW	Peter Lappin	1991-1992
4, 5, 6	D	Rick Lessard	1991-1992
6, 26	D	Pat MacLeod	1991-1993
17, 12	RW	Jeff Madill	1991-1992, 1995-1997
4, 26	D	Jayson More	1991-1994
1	G	Jarmo Myllys	1991-1992
18, 28	LW	Jeff Odgers	1990-1992
4	D	Sandis Ozolinsh	1991-1992
2, 7	D	Tom Pederson	1991-1994
20, 25	C/LW	J.F. Quintin	1991-1998
21	D	Claudio Scremin	1990-1998
11, 15, 23, 18	RW	Kevin Sullivan	1990-1992
14, 21	C	Mike Sullivan	1991-1992, 1993-1994
2	D	David Williams	1991-1993