As captain of Denver’s newest hockey team, defenseman Aaron MacKenzie will have at least three responsibilities. The first two — play hard and maintain a united front — apply to any hockey captain, but the third is unique to the expansion Denver Cutthroats of the Central Hockey League.

“I might have to talk for ‘Army’ sometimes when he gets all fired up,” MacKenzie said.

“Army” is first-year coach Derek Armstrong, a recently retired NHL forward who is beginning his first year in an executive position.

He is a Canadian who is married to an American, and he is fluent in passion and emotion. He never met an ice rink he didn’t like or entertain a conversation that wasn’t intense.

Armstrong, 39, played for 15 professional hockey teams, including five in the NHL, and was considered the consummate teammate. So it was only fitting that he chose MacKenzie as his first captain.

MacKenzie, 31, played four years for the University of Denver and five games for the Avalanche. Like Armstrong, he is considered a “glue guy,” but not nearly as animated.

“It’s an honor, obviously, being the first captain of the Cutthroats, and it’s nice to be back in Denver,” MacKenzie said as he prepared for the Cutthroats’ inaugural game Friday against the Missouri Mavericks at the Denver Coliseum. “I played for the Avs. I played for DU. Now I play for the Cutthroats. It’s going to be a fun year.”

MacKenzie and Armstrong are the type of blue-collar, hard-working, high-character men Cutthroats owner John Hayes wants to lead his team.

As a senior at DU in 2002-03, MacKenzie was named Western Collegiate Hockey Association defenseman of the year. He signed with the St. Louis Blues as an undrafted free agent and played five seasons for the NHL team’s top American Hockey League affiliate, in Worcester, Mass., and then Peoria, Ill., the latter of which he served as captain.

He signed a one-year contract with the Avalanche in 2008 and mostly played with the club’s AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters (52 games), but suited up briefly for the Avs at the end of Joe Sakic’s final season with Colorado.

Since then, MacKenzie has bounced around the ECHL, the Czech Republic, Austria and Japan. At age 31, the native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, is married and finally home. But he is still trying to get back to the NHL.

“Playing in Europe, there’s no chance to really play in the NHL. Last year I played in Japan and there was no chance to play in the NHL,” MacKenzie said. “But when you’re in North America there’s a small chance you could get a call-up or something. You never know.”

Armstrong learned about MacKenzie through New York Islanders assistant coach Brent Thompson, who worked with MacKenzie in Peoria.

“I made a couple calls on him. I’ve always known him, even though he’s a lot younger than me,” Armstrong said of MacKenzie. “He’s a great leader, good around the community and plays with passion. Plays a lot like (Nicklas) Lidstrom. He can log minutes, he competes, good with the young guys.

“He’s just a quality person and that’s who John asked me to get — quality people in here. He’s definitely that.”

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