The Hockey News

Kansas City Hockey News and Notes

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A few interesting things have come up concerning Kansas City’s hockey history, as well as present with the Mavericks. While I had a bit of free time, I thought I’d take a few minutes to write about all the interesting KC hockey notes.

First off, a big congratulations to former Blade Pat Ferschweiler! Ferschweiler was one of the coaches behind the US win of the bronze medal in the World Juniors Tournament. It’s always great to be able to cheer on our former Blades in their current endeavors.

Another notable from this week is former Blades goaltender Geoff Sarjeant making The Hockey News power list at number 69. There is a video interview with Geoff conducted by the owner of THN Graeme Roustan that you can watch at: https://thehockeynews.com/money-and-power/geoff-sarjeant-in-conversation-with-graeme-roustan. Sarjeant is the associate Vice President of the Canadian Tire Corporation, a company that fits into the hockey world as a major retailer for hockey gear, as well as being the naming rights holder for the current home of the Ottawa Senators. Former Blade and current Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Kevin Sullivan also made the power list.

Former KC Pla-Mor and Mohawk Johnny Harms will be featured in a new eight card Upper Deck set celebrating Canadian Indigenous players. Other players featured in the NHL First People’s Rookie Card set are Ted Nolan, Jason Simon, Dan Frawley, Danny Hodgson, Victor Mercredi, Rocky Trottier, and Bill LeCaine. While the cards will not be widely available, they will be given away at events and tournaments celebrating Canada’s Indigenous people. Here’s a look at Harms and Lecaine’s cards.

And the final note for this week, tonight the KC Mavericks celebrate their affiliation with the Seattle Kraken by wearing special Kraken themed jerseys for tonight’s (January 14th) game. The jerseys are white featuring KC in the Kraken style of lettering. One shoulder patch is that of the Kraken, the other shoulder patch is of the AHL affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds. These are sweet jerseys that will be auctioned off during the game via the Dash Auction app.

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Just looking over the latest copy of The Hockey News (Volume 76, No. 06, Prospects Unlimited) and discovered some fascinating content. This copy is chalked full of content on prospects, with a cover story on the Buffalo Sabres young players.

There are also two articles that should be of interest to Kansas City hockey fans. One of those talks about the ECHL and building a winner in that league. The other article is about a four-game exhibition series that the Kansas City Scouts played in against the Washington Capitals right before the final decision to move to Denver was made.

The ECHL article, entitled Can’t Coast By written by Ken Campbell, gives good insight into how an ECHL franchise is put together. It also gives you an idea of how much your favorite KC Maverick might be getting paid to play, as they give a bit of information about the league’s salary cap. (With the cap at less than $15,000 a week, no wonder Lamar Hunt Jr. thinks the NHL expansion fee is “ridiculous”.) The article also states that ECHL affiliated teams receive between 3-8 players from an affiliation. It’s a good read, and details how difficult it could be to put together a championship ECHL team.

The Scouts article, entitled When the NHL Invaded Japan by Steve Currier, talks about The Coca-Cola Bottlers Cup 4-game exhibition tournament between the Scouts and the Washington Capitals that was played in Japan. It’s an interesting read, which I assume might just be an excerpt from Currier’s book on the subject, also called When the NHL Invaded Japan. It’s an interesting read and makes me one to grab a copy of the book to read more in-depth description, as well as maybe see more pictures from the event.

The Hockey News is always worthy of a purchase, if you don’t already subscribe, but I found this edition to be something I wanted to share. Oh, and this edition also had part 3 of the series talking about the WHA. It’s been an extremely interesting series to read with Howard Baldwin’s stories about the rise and fall of the league, and specifically his experiences with the Whalers franchise’s place in the league. Part 3 gets in to signing the Howes to play for the Whalers. I never knew Colleen Howe was involved in contract negotiations.

Anyhow, if you don’t have a subscription, why not? And if you don’t, you should think about trying to pick up a copy somewhere.