Houston Stealth

The Houston Stealth are a professional ice hockey team based in Houston. They compete in the STX Superleague (STX-SL) as a member of the Mountain Division of the National Hockey Conference (NHC). The team was founded during the 1996 Expansion Draft. The Stealth played out of Reunion Arena temporarily until 2001, when the team moved to Houston to play in the now Houston CCM Center.

The Stealth have won ten division titles, Four Challenger Cups as the top regular season team in the league, the NHC championship six times, and in a historic three peat, the North American Cup. Former Stealth superstar AJ Moore won the Wayne Gretzky Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs that year. Unlike most expansion teams, the Stealth have obtained great success in their first three seasons as a professional team, Winning the North American Cup in their first three years in operation. They also hold the record for highest points achieved (70-2-0) and having only 2 defeats.

History
In the early 1990s, the MLH announced it would expand. Two cities, one from Houston and one from Kansas City decided to bid for a franchise. On paper, it looked like Kansas City had the more stable bid; however, it wanted to pay only $29 million before starting play, while Houston was willing to pay the league's $50 million expansion fee up front. The Houston bid would win the expansion franchise on November 12th, 1991 and originally named the team the Stealth Bandits. But because of the team Texas Bandits already being there the team settled on Stealth, after the mutliple military bases in Texas. The next day they signed former Oilers coach Sergio Callegari and former Railmen general manager Jarmo Ville.

Their first season smashed the record for highest wins amassing 70 wins and only 2 losses in a season earning them 140 points. The top 3 scorers of the 1996-97 team was AJ Moore,Grigori Valentenko and Hall of Famer, Connor Modano. They would also go undefeated in the playoffs and eventually winning their first ever North American cup.