WINDSOR — The ECHL wants its trophy back.
Martin Lind wants his money back.
Neither side is going to get its way. Instead, the Kelly Cup — the one the Colorado Eagles hoisted after winning the 2017 and 2018 ECHL championships — sat comfortably in its case last week at the offices of Lind, a Northern Colorado businessman and the Eagles’.
To Lind, the Cup held hostage is an $800,000 example of fraud and how the ECHL dishonored the game of hockey.
Traveling hockey trophies are supposed to travel, but the ECHL first-year expansion Newfoundland Growlers — who indirectly replaced the Eagles when Colorado joined the American Hockey League as the Avalanche’s top affiliate to begin the 2018-19 season — hoisted a Kelly Cup replica after winning the league championship last week.