Kansas City Scouts Resurrected in NAHL

This news may be a bit stale, as it was first reported on June 23 by Marc Viquez of SportsLogos.net. However, better late than never as the Topeka Pilots of the North American Hockey League relocated this summer and will now be known as the Kansas City Scouts.

The Scouts, were, of course, the original identity of the Devils when they entered the NHL as an expansion team back in 1974-75. They only played two seasons in the Kemper Arena in Kansas City before bolting to Denver in 1976 and becoming the Colorado Rockies. They moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey and became the Devils in 1982.

Viquez mentions that the new NAHL team will be honoring “the original Kansas City Scouts” and, as such, will be named after the statue in Penn Valley Park in Kansas City called “the Scout.”

However, unlike the original Scouts, the statue – which features a Native American on horseback – will not be present in the team logo. The logo, which was unveiled by the team on June 22, instead features an eagle head underneath the team’s name all featured on an arrowhead.

Other than that major change, the uniforms will feature striping very reminiscent of the NHL Scouts. The colors that the team used both in Kansas City and Colorado: gold, red and blue will remain. Although the shade of blue is a little bit closer to navy this time around.

Viquez reported that the team will play its upcoming 2020-21 NAHL season out of the Kansas City Ice Center. The team, he said, was founded in 2003 as the Lone Star Cavalry and moved to Topeka in 2007 before relocating to Shawnee, Kansas for next season.

The NAHL are “the only USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier II junior hockey league” in the United States according to the Scouts’ press release on the logo and uniform unveil.

Players generally go from the NAHL to college hockey. We actually have a NAHL franchise right here in our state. The New Jersey Titans play out of Middletown at the Middletown Sports Complex. I have attended a game here and it is fun to see future NCAA players in action.

The Titans themselves are a recycled identity, as they use the logo and nickname of the former ECHL team that played out of Trenton, the Trenton Titans, a former affiliate of the Devils themselves.