The Rockies name itself would be applied to Denver's Major League Baseball (MLB) expansion team that began play in 1993.

Ivan Mullenix, owner of the Central Hockey League's Denver Spurs, had been awarded a "conditional" NHL franchise for the 1976–77 season.

With McNichols Sports Arena already completed by 1975, he looked to enter the NHL a year early, and the league attempted to broker an arrangement by which he would acquire the struggling California Golden Seals and move them to Denver in lieu of an expansion team.

However, Capitals' owner Abe Pollin was far better financed than the 37-member consortium that owned the Scouts, and had the patience to handle the typical struggles of an expansion team.

A Denver-based group headed by Jack Vickers[2] purchased the Scouts and moved them to Denver, renaming them the Colorado Rockies.

In addition, they at various times had such players as Chico Resch, Wilf Paiement, Rene Robert, Rob Ramage, and Bobby Schmautz.

One of the few highlights in the franchise's history came during the 1979–80 season, when the flamboyant Don Cherry, a former Jack Adams Award winner, was named head coach after being fired by the Boston Bruins.

As he later admitted, Cherry's outspokenness and feuding with Rockies general manager Ray Miron did not endear him to the front office.

[4] Vickers sold the Rockies on July 12 of that year to Arthur Imperatore Sr., whose intention was to keep the franchise in Denver temporarily before moving it to the new arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey which was under construction and expected to be completed by 1980.

[4] Before he could complete the move, however, Imperatore sold the Rockies to Buffalo-based cable television magnate Peter Gilbert; the NHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale on February 10, 1981.

Gilbert had promised not to move the team, and league president John Ziegler said that he wanted to make the Rockies a model franchise.

[6] Finally in 1982, after a failed bid by an Ottawa-based ownership group intent on moving the Rockies to the Canadian capital, the franchise was sold in May to New Jersey shipping tycoon John McMullen, who also owned Major League Baseball's Houston Astros.

The last Rockies player on the New Jersey Devils' active roster was Aaron Broten, upon his trade to the Minnesota North Stars on January 5, 1990.

Additionally, Rockies draft pick Bruce Driver played in the NHL until 1998, but did not join the team until 1983, a year after their move to New Jersey.

The Rockies are credited as being the first team to use the Gary Glitter song "Rock and Roll, Part 2" at a sporting event.

In the 2022–23 season, both the Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils wore "Reverse Retro" uniforms featuring the Rockies' red, gold and blue palette.