The Washington Capitals have renewed their affiliation agreement with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL for the coming season, announced Capitals vice president and general manager George McPhee today.
“We have a lot of pride in our affiliation with South Carolina, highlighted by the Stringrays’ run to the Kelly Cup this spring” McPhee exclaimed. “It has been an outstanding proving ground for our prospects.”
During the 2008-09 season, seven Capitals prospects spent some time with South Carolina as the Stingrays finished 42-23-6 and captured Kelly Cup as champions of the ECHL.
Goaltender Michal Neuvirth played for South Carolina, Hershey and Washington last season. He began with the Stingrays, earned a spot in the ECHL All-Star Game before being called up by Hershey at the end of December. Two months later he was called up to Washington and went 2-1-0 with a 3.00 goals-against average before heading back to Hershey where he reigned as MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs.
Nine players who have played for South Carolina are currently under contract with Washington – Sean Collins, Stefan Della Rovere, Viktor Dovgan, Josh Godfrey, Andrew Gordon, Patrick McNeill, Neuvirth, Steve Pinizzotto and Kyle Wilson. Among those players, Collins, Gordon and Neuvirth all have appeared at the NHL level with the Capitals.
“We are very excited to be affiliated with the Capitals again next season,” said South Carolina head coach Cail MacLean. “It’s a great situation when you can work with an NHL team that believes in the value of development at the AA level.” Sphere: Related Content
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