ECHL’s Kelly Cup broken in half at Newfoundland strip club

The ECHL’s Kelly Cup has had a rough go of things lately… 

First the league’s championship trophy was effectively held hostage by the ownership of the Colorado Eagles, the league’s 2017 and 2018 champions, and now its replacement has reportedly been broken in half by the 2019 champion Newfoundland Growlers.

But first, let’s back things up…

The real Kelly Cup is residing somewhere in Denver, Colorado where the owners of the Colorado Eagles are reportedly holding it hostage.

The Eagles left the league as back-to-back champions in 2018 before moving on up to the AHL for the 2018-19 season. They were to release the trophy back to the ECHL in December, but reportedly did not honor their agreement.

“They won it two years in a row and one of their owners said, ‘fine, we’ll keep it,’ ” ECHL commissioner Patrick Kelly said last month. ” … We can’t take the player’s names off (the replica cup), but I wish they’d take the guy’s — I won’t say his name — but I wish they’d have taken his name off.”

“The management of the ECHL has full knowledge of the situation with the Kelly Cup. We have made numerous attempts to return it. They have chosen to ignore our requests, therefore the Kelly Cup remains in Colorado. This is all that will be released regarding this matter,” team owner Martin Lind said in a prepared statement.

Both the league and its former team are reportedly at odds with regards to unpaid fees on the team’s part. It’s an odd situation that ultimately seemed to resolve itself when the league simply decided to make a new trophy… which is now broken in half.

According to Joe Kinsey of the Broken Coverage blog, the Growlers were recently at a St. John’s, Nfld “gentlemen’s club” called The Cotton Club.

Check it out:

Hmmmmm… looks like we might have to do some investigative work at this Cotton Club. You know… purely in the name of professionalism.