Coach Chevy?

Full marks to any hockey fan who can name the jersey to the left because I certainly could not when I first saw it. If you are old enough to remember Roller Hockey International as a hockey fan, you may remember the Denver Daredevils wearing these jerseys. I certainly did not, but we didn't get many roller hockey games broadcast in Canada and there was no local team in Winnipeg. The Daredevils lasted just one season in RHI where they weren't all that great, but we need to talk about the head coach in their lone season of wheeled hockey action because he's well-known in Winnipeg hockey circles.

Specifically, I want to bring to your attention this snippet of news.

You're reading that correctly as Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was the head coach of RHI's Denver Daredevils for one season! Can anyone picture Cheveldayoff behind the bench of a pro roller hockey team? I can't see him enjoying that experience at all.

It happened in the summer of 1996, though, and the Daredevils went 8-17-3 with those three games being losses in overtime. They only had two NHL players on their roster in Stephane Roy who played 12 total games with the Minnesota North Stars and Derek Laxdal who played 67 NHL games with the Leafs and Islanders. They mostly had players who found success in minor-pro hockey like Jay Neal, Kevin St. Jacques, and Darryl Olsen, but the Daredevils struggled.

Their first game was a 13-7 loss to the Vancouver Voodoo on June 1, 1996 which means that Brandon Sun snippet was filed two months after Cheveldayoff coached his first game and one week before he coached his last game on August 16, 1996 when Denver beat the Oakland Skates by an 11-10 score. With the Daredevils finishing at the bottom of the five-team Pacific Division standings, there wouldn't be a playoff run for the first-year, Mile-High roller hockey team.

Denver would finish as the third-worst team in the RHI that season, ahead of the 3-22-3 Ottawa Loggers and the 7-17-4 New Jersey Rockin' Rollers. The Long Island Jawz, who expanded into the RHI at the same time as Denver, finished with a 16-9-3 record, so it's pretty clear that whoever put together the Daredevils' roster didn't exactly build the most talented team. That may have included the 26 year-old head coach who had no roller hockey experience at that time.

Obviously, I have no access to the Winnipeg Jets nor any of their front-office staff, so I'm hoping that someone from those who have been granted access can sit down with Kevin Cheveldayoff and pick his brain about his one season in Denver coaching roller hockey. The Daredevils would cease to exist after their one summer in the Mile High City, but there's a fun connection to explore between the NHL's Winnipeg Jets and Roller Hockey International's Denver Daredevils!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!