Denver Cutthroats

The Denver Cutthroats are a minor league ice hockey team currently a member of the Central Hockey League scheduled to begin play for the 2012–13 season. They are the 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 will play their home games at the Denver Coliseum.

Besides sharing the city/market with their parent club the Avalanche, the Cutthroats will be 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 original IHL's Denver Rangers (1987–89).

History
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 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.

Finally, on May 17, 2012, the Cutthroats officially announced their name, logo, and color scheme. With the addition of the Cutthroats, the CHL aligned to the one Berry Conference. It was announced that the Cutthroats would open the season in Denver against the Missouri Mavericks on October 19, marking the first hockey game in the Coliseum since 1989.

Staff
The Cutthroats are owned by Boulder resident John Hayes, also CEO of Broomfield-based Ball Corp.. Former NHL player Derek Armstrong will serve as the Cutthroats' head coach; although his NHL career had him playing for the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues, he is best remembered in Denver for being a member of the Grizzlies' 1994-95 Turner Cup run.