The West Palm Beach Blaze were one of four charter members, along with the Jacksonville Bullets, Lakeland Ice Warriors and Daytona Beach Sun Devils, of the Sunshine Hockey League, a Class A level minor-league loop that started up in the state of Florida in 1992, the same year the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning joined the NHL.
After three separate WHA teams, the Miami Screaming Eagles, Florida Breakers and Florida Ice Gators, failed to get off the ground during the 1970s, the Blaze was actually the first minor-professional team to lace ‘em up in South Florida in the modern era.