What Happened To The Kansas City Scouts?

The Kansas City Scouts joined the NHL in 1974 as part of the league’s rapid expansion, becoming Missouri’s second NHL franchise. But almost immediately, things began to go wrong in ways few expected. In just two seasons, the team would be gone. So what really happened to the Scouts? In today’s video we break down the rise and fall of the Kansas City Scouts.

Rapid NHL Expansion

The story of the Kansas City Scouts really begins in the late 1960s, when the NHL entered a period of rapid expansion that would permanently reshape the league. Expansion had been discussed among NHL owners since the early 1960s, when league officials began considering growth as a way to protect themselves from emerging rival leagues like the Western Hockey League. In 1966, after several years of debate, the NHL committed to a major expansion that would double the size of the league. Beginning with the 1967–68 season, six new franchises entered the NHL: the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, California Seals, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues.

To make room for the new teams, the league created a two-division structure. The original franchises were grouped in the East, while the new clubs formed the West. The playoff format was also designed in a way that guaranteed an expansion team would reach the Stanley Cup Final by having East and West champions meet for the title. The league also introduced the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, awarded to the Western Division champion.

In Canada, fans were disappointed that Vancouver was left out of the original 1967 expansion. That changed in 1970 when the league awarded franchises to both the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres. These teams were given favorable draft conditions, including priority selections in the amateur draft. For example, Buffalo used its first pick on Gilbert Perreault, who would become a franchise cornerstone and Hall of Fame player.

In 1972, the NHL faced  serious competition from the newly formed World Hockey Association. The WHA quickly disrupted the league by signing established NHL players, including Derek Sanderson, J.C. Tremblay, and Ted Green. Its biggest splash came when Bobby Hull left the Chicago Black Hawks for a record-breaking contract, instantly legitimizing the rival league.

A wave of player movement followed, with names like Bernie Parent, Gerry Cheevers, Johnny McKenzie, and Rick Ley joining the WHA. By the start of its second season, dozens of NHL players had switched leagues. The WHA even persuaded the legendary Gordie Howe to return from retirement to play alongside his sons, further boosting its visibility.

In response to this, the NHL attempted legal challenges to stop player departures, but courts ultimately ruled against the league. That decision allowed players to sign freely with WHA teams and effectively ended the NHL’s control over player movement.

With the increased competition, the NHL expanded again to protect key markets, awarding franchises to the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames in 1972. However, continued pressure from the WHA led to yet another round of expansion just two years after the last one. In 1974, the NHL awarded franchises to Kansas City and Washington, D.C. The Kansas City ownership group, led by Edwin G. Thompson was selected in 1972 after competing with several other local bids. The group behind the team, the Kansas City Hockey Associates, originally included 22 investors and was selected from multiple applicants. 

The team planned to play at the newly constructed Kemper Arena, built to host both hockey and basketball, and the Scouts would share the arena with the NBA’s Kansas City Kings. The new owners initially planned to name the team the “Kansas City Mohawks.” The idea came from the city’s location spanning both Missouri and Kansas, which blended Missouri’s postal abbreviation “MO” with the Kansas nickname “Jayhawkers.” However, the Chicago Black Hawks opposed the name, arguing it was too similar to their own.

As a result, the team chose to hold a public naming contest instead. And the winning name, “Scouts,” was inspired by The Scout, a well-known statue in Penn Valley Park that overlooks downtown Kansas City. The statue was incorporated into the team’s logo, which was created in 1973 by Hallmark Cards artist Gary Sartain on a freelance basis.

With everything finally in place, the Kansas City Scouts were ready to take the ice and begin their story, stepping into an NHL that had rapidly expanded from six teams to 18, bringing its first major expansion era to a close.

On Thin Ice

Kansas City played its first NHL game on October 9, 1974 in Toronto, losing 6–2 to the Maple Leafs. On a positive note, Simon Nolet, the Scouts’ team captain had the distinction of scoring the franchises first ever goal. Their first home games were delayed due to their home ice, Kemper Arena finishing up construction, which forced the Scouts to play an early road-heavy schedule. The club opened the season with eight straight road games, managing just one tie while losing the other seven. 

Their home debut came on November 2, where they narrowly lost 4–3 to the Chicago Black Hawks. Ivan Boldirev scored the first NHL goal ever at Kemper Arena just minutes into the game, while rookie Wilf Paiement recorded the first goal for Kansas City on home ice. The following night, the Scouts earned their first win in franchise history, defeating the Washington Capitals 5–4 on the road. Despite that early milestone, their first season was a difficult one. Like many expansion teams, Kansas City struggled, finishing with a 15–54–11 record and just 41 points.

The 1975–76 season actually started with a bit of hope. Around the halfway point, the Scouts were somehow still in the playoff picture. A 3–1 win over the California Golden Seals on December 28 had them just one point behind their inter-state rivals, the St. Louis Blues in the Smythe Division.

Over their final 44 games, the Scouts completely collapsed. They went winless for over a month, posting a brutal 0–14–2 stretch, which was briefly snapped by a win over the Washington Capitals, and then somehow got even worse—finishing the season 0–21–6 the rest of the way. By the end, they finished with just 12 wins and 36 points, the worst record in franchise history, a record that still stands to this day.

After their abysmal second season, Kansas City and Washington traveled to Japan for an exhibition series, with games in Sapporo and Tokyo. The Capitals took the first three matchups, but on April 18, 1976, the Scouts won the last game 4–2. It would be the final win in Scouts history, although it didn’t officially count in the standings.

In just two seasons, the team burned through three coaches: Bep Guidolin, Sid Abel in a brief interim role, and Eddie Bush. Guidolin even resigned midseason after clashing with management over roster decisions.

On the ice, there wasn’t much stability either. The team had two captains, Simon Nolet and Guy Charron, while Steve Durbano led the league in penalty minutes. But with all of the turnover, and lack of continuity, wins were hard to come by. Across their first two seasons, the Scouts won just 27 of 160 games, including winning just 7 road games in those two seasons.

Part of the problem was timing of the NHL’s expansion. With the rise of the World Hockey Association, there were suddenly 32 major pro teams fighting for talent. That left expansion teams like Kansas City and Washington with thin rosters. As bad as the Scouts were in their first two seasons, the Washington Capitals were somehow even worse. The Capitals only managed to win 8 games their first season, and only slightly improved by winning 11 games in their second season. 

By the mid-1970s, the NHL’s rapid expansion was already being put to the test, and in Kansas City, things had reached a breaking point. Attendance had dropped so low that even the players’ association began to question whether the team could make payroll, with the franchise at real risk of collapsing if conditions didn’t improve quickly.

Hey, I just want to pause real quick to ask if you are enjoying this video so far please hit the like button and don’t forget to subscribe. Also, since the Kansas City Scouts left the NHL, the league has continued expanding into new markets—and even returning to former ones like Winnipeg and Atlanta. So do you think it’s time for the NHL to return to Kansas City? Let me know in the comments below!

Ok let’s get back to the video…

Move To Denver

By 1976, The Kansas City Scouts were struggling financially. The team faced inflated player costs, poor on-ice performance, and weak attendance. They averaged just 8,218 fans per game at Kemper Arena, which held about 17,000 seats, compared to the league average which closer to 13,000 at the time.

The franchise was owned by a large group of 37 investors who were already heavily in debt. In an effort to stabilize finances, they launched a season-ticket drive to raise revenue. However, when only about 2,000 additional season tickets were sold, the ownership group determined that the team was not financially viable and decided to sell.

While the Washington Capitals were even worse on the ice during the same period, their owner, Abe Pollin, had the financial stability and long-term patience to absorb losses typical of an expansion team. Unfortunately, The Scouts did not have that same ownership backing.

The team was placed on the market and attracted interest from a Denver-based group led by oilman Jack A. Vickers. A local Kansas City group also explored purchasing the franchise, but the NHL warned that if the team was not sold to Vickers, the owners would owe over a million dollars in expansion and territorial fees to the St. Louis Blues. Facing that pressure, the ownership reluctantly agreed to sell the team to Vickers on July 26, 1976.

After just two seasons in Kansas City, the franchise relocated to Denver and were rebranded as the Colorado Rockies. The move to Colorado did not immediately improve the team’s performance, as they continued to struggle and languished near the bottom of the league. The team did manage however, to make the Stanley Cup playoffs one time, during the 1977-78 season. Even then, they finished the regular season with the sixth worst record and only happened to make the playoffs due to the extremely poor Smythe Division that year. As expected, the Rockies were easily defeated in the first round by the Philadelphia Flyers.

By the late 1970’s Jack Vickers’ oil business had fallen on hard times, and had left him unable to keep up with the lease on McNichols Arena by 1978. From the start, the financial setup had been on shaky ground, as the Rockies didn’t get any revenue from parking, concessions, or advertising, which made it even harder to stay afloat.

That same year, Vickers sold the team to Arthur Imperatore Sr., who planned to keep the franchise in Denver temporarily before moving it to the new Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey once construction was finished, which understandably upset many fans in the Denver area. The plan was also criticized as there were already three other NHL teams in the area, the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and just south of New Jersey, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Before that move could happen, Imperatore got cold feet and decided to sell the Rockies, this time to Buffalo cable TV executive Peter Gilbert. The NHL approved the sale in 1981, and at that point the league publicly supported keeping the team in Denver. Gilbert even promised the franchise would stay in Colorado, and league officials talked about building the Rockies into a stable, model franchise.

But by 1982, the team’s financial struggles continued and once again the club was back on the market. There were even discussions about relocating the franchise to Ottawa, and at one point, ideas were floated about merging the team with the Washington Capitals, similar to what the league had previously done with the Cleveland Barons, who merged with the Minnesota North Stars.

Ultimately, the Rockies were sold again, this time to New Jersey shipping magnate John McMullen, who also owned the Houston Astros. McMullen revisited the idea of moving the team to New Jersey, and with the league’s approval for the 1982–83 season, the franchise was relocated and rebranded as the New Jersey Devils, ending the Rockies’ brief and unstable run in Denver. Also as part of the relocation, the Devils were forced to compensate the Flyers, Rangers, and Islanders for encroaching on their territory. 

Several players from the Scouts era remained part of the franchise’s history. Goalie Bill McKenzie was the last active player on the Rockies roster who had also played for the Scouts, appearing for the franchise until 1980. Wilf Paiement, the team’s first-ever draft pick, was the last former Scout to remain active in the NHL, retiring in 1988.

The Scouts and the California Golden Seals (who relocated and became the Cleveland Barons in 1976) were the first NHL franchises to relocate since the 1930s. After the Scouts left, Kansas City returned to minor league hockey, which included the Kansas City Blades of the International Hockey League in the 1990s and early 2000s, and later the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL.

Since moving to New Jersey, the Devils have largely downplayed their origins as the Scouts and Rockies, with the team rarely acknowledging that history. However, some references remain, including arena artwork at the Prudential Center showing former team identities and arenas.

In the 2022–23 season, the Devils introduced a “Reverse Retro” jersey inspired by the Scouts, featuring similar colors but replacing the original logo with the modern Devils branding. That same year, the team’s 40th anniversary branding acknowledged the franchise’s full history, including its time before relocating to New Jersey.

In the end, the Kansas City Scouts became one of the clearest examples of how difficult the NHL’s expansion era really was in the 1970s. A combination of financial struggles, thin rosters, and bad timing made it nearly impossible for the franchise to survive in Kansas City, which led to a relocation after just two seasons. But even though the Scouts were short-lived, their story is still part of NHL history. And with the league continuing to expand and revisit past markets, maybe someday Kansas City will get another chance at the NHL.

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other article on the rise and fall of the Cleveland Barons, where I break down how the NHL’s relocation experiment struggled with financial instability, poor on-ice performance, and limited fan support before eventually folding and merging into the Minnesota North Stars.

Also, if there’s anything that I forgot to mention about the Kansas City Scouts move to Denver, let me know in the comments below! As always, don’t forget to like and subscribe if you haven’t already and thanks for reading!