Brampton Beast

History

From 1998 to 2013, the Powerade Centre was home to the Ontario Hockey League's Brampton Battalion, a major junior hockey team. The Battalion relocated to North Bay, Ontario in the 2013 off-season after several years of low attendance and struggling financially. On January 23, 2013, the Central Hockey League announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent with the ownership group led by Gregg Rosen, former Kingston Voyageurs owner, and president of KIMCO Steel in Kingston. Minority owner, Cary Kaplan, would serve as the President & General Manager. The lease was officially signed and the agreement executed on March 8, 2013.

On April 22, the Beast announced that Brampton native and former Fayetteville FireAntz coach, the 2012 SPHL coach of the year, Mark DeSantis would serve as the team's first head coach. DeSantis shortly named former Brampton Battalion player and his former teammate, Brent Hughes as Beast assistant coach.

In June 2013, the Beast announced its first player signed was Brett Smith, the former assistant captain of the Fort Wayne Komets and member of the CHL Championship team in 2011. Cal Wild and Jason Pitton were announced on July 9, 2013. Defenceman Michael Couch and right winger Tylor Michel were signed on August 16, 2013. On August 30, 2013 the Beast added two forwards, former New York Islander Rob Collins and defending SPHL League MVP Josh McQuade. On September 28, 2013, the Beast Mascot "Boomer" was born.

The 2013–14 schedule was released on July 26, 2013 and featured the Beast playing the first CHL game on Canadian soil against the Arizona Sundogs on October 18, 2013. The Beast would finish the season with 15 of their final 19 games at home, more than any other team. On August 22, 2013, Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman announced that the Lightning of the National Hockey League and the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League would affiliate with the Brampton Beast for the 2013–14 season. The Beast retired #7 in honour of the Brampton Beast fans being "the 7th man" during their first home game vs. the Arizona Sundogs.

For the team's second season in 2014, head coach Mark DeSantis was replaced by his assistant Brent Hughes as the team's new head coach and Cal Wild was named the team's second Captain. Key signings included former Toronto Maple Leaf, Phil Oreskovic, former ECHL MVP and OHL scoring leader Tyler Donati, 2013 Beast scoring leader Jason Pitton, perennial point a game player Chad Painchaud, former Battalion players Stephon Thorne and Jason Dale, former Kalamazoo Wings Captain Elgin Reid, Florida Everblades goaltender Trevor Cann. Mike MacIsaac, Grant Rollheiser, Brayden Rose and Andrew Darrigo returned for their second season with the Beast.

On October 7, 2014, not long before the 2014–15 season was set to begin, it was announced that the Central Hockey League had ceased operations. The Beast, along with the Allen Americans, Quad City Mallards, Missouri Mavericks, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder, were all approved for expansion membership into the ECHL for the 2014–15 season.

The Beast finished their inaugural ECHL season on April 12, 2015 against the Wheeling Nailers. Captain Cal Wild was awarded the ECHL Community Player of the Year, one year after winning the Central Hockey League's Man of the Year award. Jason Pitton second successful season with the Beast made him the all-time franchise scorer, in addition to a number of other statistical categories (all-time goals, assists, points, shots on goal). Chad Painchaud was recognized as February's ECHL Player of the Month after scoring 17 goals - including three hat-tricks and a four-goal game - in addition to three assists for 20 points during the month. However, the team finished 25th out of 28 teams and would fire head coach Brent Hughes after the end of the season.

On May 5, 2015, the Beast announced Colin Chaulk, former Kalamazoo Wings assistant coach and former long time captain of the Fort Wayne Komets, had been hired as the new head coach for the 2015–16 season.

On May 28, 2015, the Beast announced their affiliation with the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens and the American Hockey League's St. John's IceCaps.

For the 2015–16, the Beast had a number of major signings. Significant among them former NHler and prolific Battalion defenseman Mike Vernace, ECHL Scoring Champion (2014) and CHL MVP (2012) Brandon Marino, top ECHL goal scorer and championship winner Chris Auger, AHL veteran and ECHL captain Jordan Henry. Back in the fold are captain Cal Wild (until he retired), the league's top rookie scoring defenseman Matthew Maione, and the return of the Beast first season's points per game leader, Scott Howes. Montreal Canadiens have provided the Beast several players in 2015 through the season, notably veteran standout AHL goalie Eddie Pasquale, and Travis Brown, as well as draft picks Tim Bozon, Dalton Thrower, Josiah Didier, and Stefan Fournier.

After being the only player to appear in all three Beast seasons, as well as being named captain in each season and two-time Brampton Beast's Man of the Year, Cal Wild announced his retirement on November 22, 2015. He retired second in both career and points and games played, behind only Jason Pitton in both categories.

In January 2016, the team asked the Brampton City Council for a financial partnership to operate out of the Powerade Center for the 2016–17 season noting that the City's lack of ownership stake in the building is a significant impediment to running a viable hockey franchise. GM Cary Kaplan stated that if the team and city are unable to come to agreement to help offset the team's financial losses, the team would not play the next season. On March 9, 2016, the city council agreed in an 8-2 vote to a 3-year sponsorship agreement of $1.5 Million to help mitigate the predicted financial losses. This money will be refunded to the City if the team earns a profit.

The 2016–17 season had the most returning players in Beast history, led by captain Brandon Marino, Jordan Henry, Like Pither, Luc Blain, Tim Billingsley. Free agent signings included top-ten scorer David Pacan, and former team leaders in scoring David Vallorani and Brandon MacLean.

Team name

On January 30, the team officially announced a name-the-team contest, with the final ten names being announced on March 19, 2013. The final two of ten finalists were Brampton Beast and Brampton Bandits, eliminated April 10, 2013. Other options were Arrows (eliminated March 27), Bengals (eliminated March 22), Blizzard (eliminated April 3), North Stars (eliminated April 4), Renegades (eliminated March 28), Smash (eliminated March 21), Vipers (eliminated April 5), and Wolverines (eliminated March 29).

The Brampton Beast name was announced as the winner on April 10. The name was submitted by four fans including Joseph Stephen and his son Alexander. The team logo and colours were released at City Hall in front of 350 fans on Saturday April 27. Team colours are Silver, Black, Red & White.

Team franchise records

As of the 2015–16 season

Single season records

As of the 2015–16 season

Retired numbers

7 - Fans (In honour of the Fans of Brampton - being the "7th Man").