Central Hockey League


The Central Hockey League was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. Until 2013, it was owned by Global Entertainment Corporation, at which point it was purchased by the individual franchise owners. As of the end of its final season in 2014, three of the 30 National Hockey League teams had affiliations with the CHL: the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Several teams of defunct leagues joined the CHL along its history, including the Southern Hockey League, Western Professional Hockey League and International Hockey League. After two teams suspended operations during the 2014 offseason, the ECHL accepted the remaining seven teams as members in October 2014, meaning the end for the CHL after 22 seasons.

History

The Central Hockey League was revived in 1992 by Ray Miron and the efforts of Bill Levins, with the idea of central ownership of both the league and the teams. Both men were from hockey backgrounds. Miron had been general manager of the Colorado Rockies, and had briefly been president of the previous Central Hockey League in 1976. In the inaugural 1992–93 season the league had six teams, including the Oklahoma City Blazers, the Tulsa Oilers, the Wichita Thunder, the Memphis RiverKings, the Dallas Freeze and the Fort Worth Fire.
After Levins died, the league's championship trophy was renamed the Levins Cup. After running the league for eight years, Miron retired in 2000 and sold the league. The Levins Cup was renamed the Ray Miron President's Cup. After experiments in expansion and an ongoing battle for players and markets with the Western Professional Hockey League throughout the late 1990s, the CHL merged with the WPHL in 2001, with 10 former WPHL teams joining the CHL for the 2001–02 season. However, several years of gradual contraction in the former WPHL markets claimed most of these teams in the ensuing years. The last active former WPHL team, the Fort Worth Brahmas, effectively ceased operations following the 2012–13 season. Subsequently, in 2010, the International Hockey League folded and all five remaining IHL teams joined the CHL. As of the end of the 2013–14 season only the Quad City Mallards remain from the former IHL.
Brad Treliving, who co-founded the WPHL in 1996, became CHL commissioner following the merger, before leaving to join the Phoenix Coyotes. Duane Lewis was named the permanent commissioner in June 2008. In October 2013, the CHL appointed former president of the Pittsburgh Penguins Steve Ryan to succeed Lewis.
On March 8, 2013, the Central Hockey League announced an expansion team in Brampton, Ontario. The Brampton Beast would become the first Canadian team in the CHL's history. In October 2013, the Central Hockey League was purchased from Global Entertainment by all the team owners, putting the CHL business model in line with that of the NHL and AHL.
On May 2, 2014 the St. Charles Chill ceased operations. Soon after, the Arizona Sundogs and Denver Cutthroats suspended operations. On October 7, 2014, it was announced that the ECHL had accepted the Central Hockey League's remaining seven teams as members for the 2014–15 season, officially signaling the end of the Central Hockey League after 22 seasons. The Allen Americans, who won the last two CHL President's Cups, won two consecutive ECHL titles following the folding of the Central Hockey League.
The Mississippi RiverKings, Tulsa Oilers, and Wichita Thunder are the last of the original six franchises still playing in some capacity at the end of the CHL's tenure. In the 2014–15 season, ten teams were in the ECHL, two teams were in the SPHL, and four organizations fielded junior teams in the NAHL.

Teams


DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:01/01/1992 till:10/07/2014
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:50 top:5
Colors =
id:line value:black
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:tan1 from:10/01/1992 till:08/01/1995 text:Dallas Freeze
bar:2 color:tan1 from:10/01/1992 till:08/01/1999 text:Fort Worth Fire
bar:3 color:tan1 from:10/01/1992 till:08/01/2007 text:Memphis RiverKings
bar:3 color:tan1 from:10/01/2007 till:06/13/2011 text:Mississippi RiverKings
bar:4 color:tan1 from:10/01/1992 till:07/02/2009 text:Oklahoma City Blazers
bar:5 color:tan2 from:10/01/1992 till:end text:Tulsa Oilers
bar:6 color:tan2 from:10/01/1992 till:end text:Wichita Thunder
bar:7 color:tan1 from:10/01/1994 till:08/01/1997 text:San Antonio Iguanas
bar:7 color:tan1 from:10/01/1998 till:06/26/2002
bar:8 color:tan1 from:10/01/1996 till:06/25/2001 text:Columbus Cottonmouths
bar:9 color:tan1 from:10/01/1996 till:08/01/2001 text:Huntsville Channel Cats / Tornado
bar:10 color:tan1 from:10/01/1996 till:08/01/2001 text:Macon Whoopee
bar:11 color:tan1 from:10/01/1996 till:06/01/1998 text:Nashville Nighthawks / Ice Flyers
bar:12 color:tan1 from:10/01/1997 till:08/01/2001 text:Fayetteville Force
bar:13 color:tan1 from:10/01/1998 till:04/10/2001 text:Topeka ScareCrows
bar:14 color:tan1 from:10/01/1999 till:08/01/2004 text:Indianapolis Ice
bar:14 color:tan1 from:10/01/2004 till:08/01/2005 text:Topeka Tarantulas
bar:15 color:tan1 from:10/01/2000 till:02/20/2001 text:Border City Bandits
bar:16 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:05/19/2010 text:Amarillo Rattlers / Gorillas
bar:17 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:05/07/2008 text:Austin Ice Bats
bar:18 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:06/10/2011 text:Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs
bar:19 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:05/21/2010 text:Corpus Christi IceRays
bar:20 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:08/01/2003 text:El Paso Buzzards
bar:21 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:08/01/2006 text:Fort Worth / Texas Brahmas
bar:21 color:tan1 from:10/01/2007 till:06/16/2013
bar:22 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:06/20/2007 text:Lubbock Cotton Kings
bar:23 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:08/01/2005 text:New Mexico Scorpions
bar:23 color:tan1 from:10/01/2006 till:07/02/2009
bar:24 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:05/01/2011 text:Odessa Jackalopes
bar:25 color:tan1 from:10/01/2001 till:08/01/2005 text:San Angelo Saints / Outlaws
bar:26 color:tan1 from:10/01/2002 till:05/01/2012 text:Laredo Bucks
bar:26 color:tan1 from:10/01/2013 till:05/02/2014 shift: text:St. Charles Chill
bar:27 color:tan1 from:10/01/2003 till:05/29/2011 text:Colorado Eagles
bar:28 color:tan1 from:10/01/2003 till:06/20/2012 text:Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees
bar:30 color:tan1 from:10/01/2005 till:06/02/2008 text:Youngstown SteelHounds
bar:31 color:tan1 from:10/01/2006 till:08/20/2014 text:Arizona Sundogs
bar:32 color:tan1 from:10/01/2006 till:06/18/2009 text:Rocky Mountain Rage
bar:33 color:tan2 from:10/01/2008 till:end text:Rapid City Rush
bar:34 color:tan2 from:10/01/2009 till:end text:Allen Americans
bar:35 color:tan2 from:10/01/2009 till:end text:Missouri Mavericks
bar:36 color:tan1 from:10/01/2010 till:07/03/2011 shift: text:Bloomington PrairieThunder
bar:37 color:tan1 from:10/01/2010 till:05/17/2012 text:Dayton Gems
bar:38 color:tan1 from:10/01/2010 till:05/17/2012 shift: text:Evansville IceMen
bar:39 color:tan1 from:10/01/2010 till:05/17/2012 shift: text:Fort Wayne Komets
bar:40 color:tan2 from:10/01/2010 till:end shift: text:Quad City Mallards
bar:41 color:tan1 from:10/01/2011 till:05/15/2013 shift: text:Bloomington Blaze
bar:42 color:tan1 from:10/01/2012 till:08/20/2014 shift: text:Denver Cutthroats
bar:43 color:tan2 from:10/01/2013 till:end shift: text:Brampton Beast
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1992

Expansion

League champions