Brampton Beast

2013-14On January 23rd, 2013, the now defunct Central Hockey League (CHL) announced that they had signed aletter of intent to give Brampton a CHL franchise for the 2013-14 season. The team would hold a name-the-team contest that concluded with the name Brampton Beast being chosen on April 10th, 2013. Theteam name was submitted by a group of four fans, including Joseph Stephen and his son Alexander.

On April 22nd, 2013, Brampton Native and former SPHL coach of the year Mark DeSantis became theteam’s inaugural head coach. DeSantis would name former Brampton Battalion player Brent Hughesassistant coach.

The first player the Brampton Beast signed was Brett Smith. Smith would also go on to become theteam’s first ever Captain.

Just before the team’s inaugural season kicked off, the Beast announced the arrival of their new mascot,Boomer. The Tampa Bay Lightning organization also announced that the Brampton Beast would becometheir newest affiliate alongside the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League. At the Beast’s firstever home game, number seven was retired by the team in honour of the Brampton Beast fans beingthe “7th man” on the team.

The Brampton Beast would finish their inaugural season with a record of 33-26-0-3-4, good for sixthplace in the CHL. The team would lose in the opening round of the playoffs, four games to one againstthe eventual CHL champions Allen Americans.

2014-15The Brampton Beast joined the ECHL after the CHL ceased operations days before the season kicked offin October. The Beast, alongside six other CHL teams were granted expansion membership into the ECHLfor the start of the 2014-15 season. Brett Smith replaced Mark DeSantis behind the bench for the team’sfirst season in the ECHL.

The Beast would finish the season in seventh place in the Central division with a record of 23-46-3-0.Beast captain Cal Wild was awarded the ECHL Community Player of the Year.

2015-16On May 5th , 2018, the Brampton Beast announced that former Kalamazoo Wings assistant coach ColinChaulk had been hired as the team’s third head coach, replacing Brett Smith. Not long after, the Beastannounced that they were now affiliated with the Montreal Canadiens (NHL) and St. John’s IceCaps(AHL).

The 2015-16 season saw the Beast finish the season fourth in the Central division with a record of 23-38-7-4, missing the playoffs for the second straight season. Team captain Cal Wild retired midway throughthe season and was replaced by Brandon Marino.

2016-17The Beast acquired many top players during free agency, most notably David Pacan, David Vallorani andBrandon Maclean. The Canadiens also sent the Beast some of their top prospects, most notably ZacharyFucale and Connor Crisp.

These new additions led to the 2016-17 season being the most successful season in franchise history.The Beast finished the season with a record of 40-24-3-5, good for third place in the North Division andtheir first playoff berth in the ECHL. The Beast would win their first round series against the ReadingRoyals four games to two, before losing to the Manchester Monarchs four games to two in the secondround of the playoffs.

2017-18The 2017-18 season saw the team have a league high 17 returning players, most notably team captainBrandon Marino and assistant captains Jordan Henry and Brandon Maclean. This season would be thethird and final year the Montreal Canadiens were affiliated with the Brampton Beast. The OttawaSenators entered into a joint-agreement with the Beast to send down players from their AHL affiliate theBelleville Senators.

The Beast would finish the 2017-18 season with a record of 28-34-6-4 and would miss the playoffs forthe third time in four seasons.