Stingrays stint molded Spencer Carbery into NHL head coach

Sports Reporter

Washington Capitals' new head coach Spencer Carbery speaks during a news conference for the NHL hockey team, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Washington.

Spencer Carbery thought he was ready for the next chapter of his life.

Carbery had been playing professional hockey for the past four years and had won an ECHL championship with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2009.

There was little left for him to prove in professional hockey.

Carbery and his wife, Casey, liked the Lowcountry lifestyle and planned to settle in the Charleston area when the 2010 ECHL season ended in April.

South Carolina's Spencer Carbery and Adirondack's Cail MacLean shake hands after their Kelly Cup playoff series in 2016. Paul Zoeller/Staff

By the summer of 2010, Carbery thought he had hung up his skates for the final time and had begun the process of getting a real job. He had interviewed with several local companies in hopes of landing a position in the finance sector.

"I’d been to a couple of interviews and things were not working out the way I’d hoped," Carbery said. "I started to think, well, ‘I’ll go back and play another season with the Stingrays’. I’ll put off getting a real job for another year.’"

When the former St. Norbert's University star reached out to then Stingrays head coach Cail MacLean in mid-July he got a rude awakening.

"I told him I was thinking about playing another season, but Cail wasn't particularly interested in having me come back," Carbery said with a chuckle. "It was really one of those ‘a-ha’ moments in my life. I was floored. I had to start thinking about a plan B.’"

It wasn't that MacLean didn't think Carbery had a future in hockey; he did. It just wasn't going to be on ice.

It was going to be behind the bench as an assistant coach.

"Spencer was a great leader, a really smart hockey player and his worth ethic was off the charts," said MacLean, who has been an assistant coach with NHL's Calgary Flames the last two seasons. "You can just tell when certain guys are going to be good coaches and I felt like Spencer was one of those guys."

The problem was that Carbery had never considered getting into coaching.

"Not once, not one time as a player did I think about becoming a coach," he said. "The South Carolina Stingrays, and Cail really changed the trajectory of my life."

As it turns out, Carbery, 41, was a natural.

The British Columbia native spent the next 13 years moving up the coaching ranks, finally landing a head-coaching position with the NHL's Washington Capitals last month.

"It's crazy to think about where my life was when I got to South Carolina in 2008 and where I am today," Carbery said. "It's been a crazy journey and the South Carolina Stingrays organization has played a big role in my development as a coach and as a person. I’ll be forever grateful to the organization for the opportunity they gave me."

In all, Carbery spent eight seasons with the Stingrays, two as a player and six as a coach.

Former South Carolina coach Spencer Carbery said the ECHL club helped prepare him to become an NHL coach. (Wade Spees/Staff)

The time he spent in the Lowcountry laid the foundation for the rest of his coaching career.

"Without question, the years I spent in South Carolina were the most impactful of my coaching career," Carbery said. "That's what created the foundation of who I am as a coach. It wasn't the X's and O's. I built my work ethic, attention to detail and an understanding of how to perform all these different roles at a really high level with the Stingrays.

"Whatever you are doing, whether you are planning the bus schedule or filing your immigration for the 14 Canadians you plan to bring in that season, you better do it with an attention to detail and to make sure it's well thought out and you are organized."

Former players and teammates are not surprised that Carbery has reached the pinnacle of coaching.

"I think it's a testament to the culture of the coaching that is here with the Stingrays," said former South Carolina captain Matt Scherer, who played with Carbery. "Every coach I played for with the Stingrays has ended up moving on and finding success at the next level. Jared (Bednar) was holding the Stanley Cup last summer, Cail is with Calgary and Spencer is a head coach now. I don't know if any other ECHL team has been able to produce that many NHL coaches."

That's a sentiment shared by Stingrays president Rob Concannon.

"Spencer grinded and worked his way up through the coaching ranks," Concannon said. "It makes you really proud to be a part of an organization that has had success promoting people on and off the ice. No one works harder than Spencer, he's the first one at the rink every morning and the last one to go home."

Carbery is part of a growing brotherhood of coaches with ties to the Stingrays. He was one of four former Stingray coaches in the NHL this past season.

Carbery played for Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar during the Stingrays’ last Kelly Cup championship in 2009. Bednar led the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 2022.

MacLean has been an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames the last two seasons, while Ryan Warsofsky, Carbery's former assistant coach with Stingrays, spent last year with the NHL's San Jose Sharks.

"We try to get together as often as our schedules will let us," Bednar said. "The Stingrays organization has done a great job of promoting from within and then developing those coaches so they can move onto the next level.

"We bounce ideas off of each other all the time. It's a great fraternity to be a part of."

Reach Andrew Miller at 843-937-5599. Follow him on Twitter @APMILLER_PandC

Sports Reporter

Andrew Miller is a sports reporter, covering The Citadel, College of Charleston, S.C. Stingrays, Charleston Battery, etc. Before joining The Post and Courier in 1989, he graduated from South Carolina with a degree in journalism.

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