The IceCats got their start as the legendary Springfield Indians franchise. The Indians (and sometimes Springfield Kings)were a maintsay in Springfield from the 1930s through 1994 and were a dominant AHL force for many of those years. Roy Boe would put an end to that legacy by purchasing the Indians franchise in the summer of 1994 and move the team an hour east to Worcester. Boe was the original owner of the New York Islanders when that franchise started up in 1972 and he also owned the ABA’s New York Nets (today’s Brooklyn Nets) when they playe don Long Island. He would eventually be forced to sell the both those teamswhen heran into money trouble.

In their early years, the IceCats would end up being an affiliate of the Islanders. That saw a number of mid-90s Islanders on the IceCats, most notably TSN analyst and former goalie Jamie McLennan.In 1995, the IceCats became the St. Louis Blues’ main minor league affiliate, a relationship that would last for the duration of the IceCats’ run.

Teaming up with the Blues gave the IceCats stability and saw a lot of big league names pass through including Dennis Wideman, Curtis Sanford,Marty Reasoner, Jochen Hecht and Michal Handzus. The IceCats also had stable coaching, helmed throughout their tenure by Greg Gilbert, former Islander and Blackhawk, and then Don Granato, former Columbus Chill and future Buffalo Sabres head coach. The team finished above .500 and made the playoffsin eight of its ten seasons. They also fielded good crowds of five or six thousand per game at the Worcester Centrum (now DCU Center).

Around 2000, Boe, then 70 years old, sold the IceCats to the St. Louis Blues. The Blues continued to operate the IceCats as their top affiliate for a number of years before they ended up selling the franchise to their own affiliate in Peoria, Illinois. This was the avenue to let the Peoria Rivermen, which had been the Double-A affiliate of the Blues move up to the AHL. Unfortuantely, that spelled the end for the IceCats whose last season was 2004-05.

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About the product from the manufacturer:

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