The South Carolina Stingrays are going to have a new head coach next season.
David Warsofsky, who was hired last June, is departing the club after just one season in charge of the Washington Capitals‘ ECHL affiliate. Stingrays President Rob Concannon announced the news in a press release on Wednesday.
“During our end of the season meeting yesterday, David communicated to me that he really enjoyed coaching the Stingrays this past season,” Concannon said. “But, at this time, he wanted to explore other types of opportunities in hockey development. We appreciate David’s hard work over the past season and wish him nothing but the best.”
In his lone season with the Stingrays, Warsofsky, the younger brother of San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, led the team to a 45-23-4 record, which was good for third-best in the Eastern Conference and sixth-best in the league. The Stingrays then beat the Atlanta Gladiators in the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs before being eliminated by the Florida Everblades in the second round.
South Carolina hired Warsofsky after previous bench boss Jared Nightingale left after one season in charge to become the head coach of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. The Stingrays have not had the same head coach for more than two seasons since the Washington Capitals’ Spencer Carbery was behind their bench for five years from 2011 to 2016.
Warsofsky originally joined the Stingrays as an assistant coach under Nightingale for the 2024-25 campaign, his first post-career job in hockey. Before that, he played in 82 NHL games with the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, and Colorado Avalanche. He spent most of his career, 476 games, in the AHL with the Providence Bruins, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, San Antonio Rampage, Colorado Eagles, and Chicago Wolves.
The Stingrays will now begin their search for their next head coach, a position that has been held by a handful of current NHL coaches like Carbery, the elder Warsofsky, Colorado’s Jared Bednar, and Calgary’s Cail MacLean.
