© carberycupphoto2024

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jared Bednar, Spencer Carbery and Ryan Warsofsky were playing a friendly round of golf in familiar surroundings this August when the conservation between swings inevitably turned to hockey X’s and O’s.

This is what happens when three NHL coaches get together for four hours, particularly those with a bond like the one Bednar, Carbery and Warsofsky share. Bednar, who is in his ninth season with the Colorado Avalanche; Carbery, who is in his second season with the Washington Capitals; and Warsofsky, who has just begun his first season as coach of the San Jose Sharks, each got his start in coaching professional hockey with the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL.

Their common roots spawned a fellowship and support system among the coaches that sometimes includes them picking each other’s brains on systems, practice drills and strategy.

“We were on the golf course talking hockey, talking D-zone coverage and we all play against each other,” Warsofsky said. “I play ‘Beds’ four times a year and we’re still sharing ideas in this competitive business. But we all want to get better and help each other.”

When the Sharks promoted Warsofsky on June 13 after two seasons as an assistant under David Quinn, he became the 14th former ECHL head coach to hold the same position in the NHL. Of the NHL’s 32 current head coaches, six were head coaches in the ECHL: Bednar, Carbery, Warsofsky, the New York Rangers’ Peter Laviolette (Wheeling), the Detroit Red Wings’ Derek Lalonde (Toledo) and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Bruce Cassidy (Jackson and Trenton).

That three started with South Carolina is a source of pride for them and the organization.

“It’s great to be part of the fraternity here and they’ve done an amazing job not just moving up coaches, but players, people throughout the organization,” Bednar said. “You can see so many players and staff members going up to the next level and having success and I think that’s something to be really proud of because that’s what this league is.

“It’s a developmental league and I think the Stingrays are the best at doing that.”

© South Carolina Stingrays

The Stingrays, who entered the ECHL in 1993 and have been affiliated with the Capitals since 2004 aside from a two-year break from 2012-14, have a long track record of helping develop goalies who reached the NHL. The list includes Steve Shields, Martin Biron, James Reimer, Michal Neuvirth, Braden Holtby, Philipp Grubauer, Pheonix Copley, Vitek Vanecek and Logan Thompson.

The Sharks hiring Warsofsky — making him the League’s youngest current coach at 36 (supplanting Carbery, who is 42) — drew more attention to the pipeline of South Carolina coaches to make it to the NHL. Bednar points out that it began with Capitals director of minor league operations Jason Fitzsimmons, who preceded him as the Stingrays coach.

The South Carolina coaching tree also includes Calgary Flames assistant Cail MacLean. From Fitzsimmons (2002-2007) to Bednar (2007-2009) to MacLean (2009-2011) to Carbery (2011-2016) to Warsofsky (2016-2018), South Carolina was coached for 16 consecutive seasons by someone who went on to work in the NHL in some capacity.

Each started as an assistant under his predecessor. All but Warsofsky also played for the Stingrays.

The five converse regularly through a Stingrays coaches text chain that also includes Rob Concannon, who has been team president since 2010. Concannon was in the foursome with Bednar, Carbery and Warsofsky at Bulls Bay Golf Club that afternoon and responsible for the three NHL coaches being back in the North Charleston area for the weekend.

Deeply loyal to Concannon and the Stingrays, they happily accepted when he invited them to return for the team’s fan fest at North Charleston Coliseum on Aug. 17.

“Just walking in the building and walking in the lower bowl, you get goosebumps and start thinking about all the different moments and things that have happened that were so special in our lives, careers, coaching, playing,” Carbery said. “Even just driving into the Coliseum, you go back to when it started and all the different things that you went through: winning, losing, coaching, all the great relationships that you’ve created in this area.”

* * *

The origin story of South Carolina’s impressive succession of coaches begins with Fitzsimmons, though he shrugs off Bednar saying he started it.

“That’s where it all started, but I don’t take credit,” said Fitzsimmons, a former goalie who was teammates with Bednar and Concannon on the Stingrays’ first Kelly Cup championship team in 1997. “It was just the way it happened.”

After a back injury forced Fitzsimmons to retire in 1998, he was an assistant for four seasons under coach Rick Adduono, helping South Carolina win the Kelly Cup again in 2001. When Adduono left following the 2001-02 season, Fitzsimmons was promoted to replace him.

“They told me to go hire an assistant,” Fitzsimmons said. “I had an idea who I wanted. It was Jared Bednar. … I liked the way he thought the game. We had the same mentality.”

© South Carolina Stingrays

Now 52, Bednar was 30 at the time and hadn’t considered coaching before then.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Bednar, a rugged defenseman who played professionally for eight seasons in the American Hockey League, International Hockey League and ECHL, including six seasons with South Carolina. “We were up in Goose Creek (South Carolina). We were putting a deck on my house and me and ‘Fitz’ just lived like a block away from each other. He came over and said he got the head coaching job and then asked me if I wanted to retire and be his assistant.”

Fitzsimmons remembered some of the details differently, but the good friends agree that Bednar needed some convincing.

“I knew I wasn’t going to play forever, even though I wanted to play for another year or two,” Bednar said. “When you jump into coaching the team that you love with one of your best friends, a mentor, it was something that I thought long and hard about. I just ultimately decided that was the best move for me in my career.”

Bednar was an assistant for five seasons until Fitzsimmons left to accept a scouting position with the Capitals in 2007. Then-Stingrays president Darren Abbott, also the team’s former radio broadcaster, said Bednar was the logical candidate to succeed Fitzsimmons.

“He had a great relationship with a lot of the players already,” said Abbott, now the Los Angeles Kings chief revenue officer and president of affiliates. “He’s a tireless recruiter. At that level, the coach is also recruiting and negotiating. No one is ever going to outwork Jared. Morning, noon and night he would recruit his team. So, it was really easy, to be honest.”

In Bednar’s two seasons as coach, the Stingrays were 89-45-9, lost in the conference finals in 2008 and won their third Kelly Cup championship in 2009. Looking to take the next step, Bednar left after that season to take an assistant job with Abbotsford of the AHL.

Bednar’s path to the NHL from there wasn’t always smooth. He was fired from his first AHL coaching job with Peoria after two seasons (2010-2012), took a step back and was an assistant with Springfield in the AHL for two seasons (2012-2014).

When Springfield coach Brad Larsen was promoted to an assistant job with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2014, Bednar took over and guided the team — by then Lake Erie — to the Calder Cup in 2016. His NHL break came when Patrick Roy stepped down as the Avalanche coach on Aug. 11, 2016.

The Avalanche hired Bednar two weeks later, less than a month before the start of training camp, and the short turnaround contributed to a difficult first season when they went 22-56-4. But Colorado went 43-30-9 and qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in his second season and won the Stanley Cup in his sixth season in 2022, making Bednar the first coach to win the Kelly Cup, Calder Cup and Stanley Cup.

Bednar celebrated his day with the Cup in Charleston, where he still lives in the offseason. The first place he brought it was the Stingrays’ practice rink, Carolina Ice Palace, so the fans there could see it.

“So many people in this area supported my career both as a player and as a coach,” Bednar said. “With it being home and so many friends and family and stuff around the area, when we won, obviously, that was a dream come true and I wanted to share it with the people who were closest to me, and it seemed like the bulk of those people were here in Charleston.”

* * *

Carbery was also initially reluctant to go into coaching. A physical forward who played professionally for four seasons in the Central Hockey League and ECHL, he had a post-retirement plan was to use the business administration degree he earned at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin to work in finance.

That was his intention after Fresno, the ECHL team he was playing for, folded midway through the 2008-09 season. He turned down offers to play for other teams before Bednar called and convinced him to join the Stingrays.

“Phone call changed my life,” Carbery said. “It’s a wild, wild story of this would have been erased from my entire life — the Stingrays, coaching probably — without that phone call.”

Carbery helped South Carolina win the Kelly Cup that season and played another season for MacLean, who took over as coach after Bednar left for Abbotsford. Following the 2009-10 season, Carbery again considered retirement and went on some interviews in Charleston seeking a job in finance, but they didn’t pan out.

© South Carolina Stingrays

“So, partway through the summer I called Cail because he said, ‘Just keep me in the loop on what your plans are,’” Carbery said. “So, I called him and said, ‘I think I’m going to play one more season. I looked around at some stuff and I would like to have another year to maybe meet some people in Charleston and play at the same time.’”

MacLean had a different idea. He was looking for an assistant and saw Carbery as a perfect fit.

“The idea that he was there for his team’s benefit, that was the way he approached the game,” MacLean. “He also had the drive to do the little things that teams need to do to win. So, yeah, he was a great candidate.”

Carbery was surprised, though, when MacLean asked, “Have you ever considered coaching?”

“I said, ‘I never thought about it. No,’” Carbery said. “And I’ll never forget this, and he gives me a hard time about it, but it is true. I go, ‘I’d really like to play another season.’ And he goes, ‘Well, I didn’t ask you to play another season.’”

Carbery, who was 28 at the time, realized then that his playing days were probably over. So, he asked MacLean what the assistant job entailed. MacLean outlined what Carbery’s responsibilities would be. The hours would be long, and the pay minimal — more on that later.

“So, I go home and talk to my wife, and I was like, ‘That is not good,’” Carbery said. “But then I started to think about the other things I could do that would potentially help transition into the financial world or whatever. So, I took the job and immediately when I started coaching, I loved it even more so than playing.

“Just going on the ice and breaking film down and doing pre-scouts and helping players sort of maximize their talents and abilities and trying to share information that could maybe help them a little bit in games or in their careers, I fell in love with it right away.”

After Carbery’s first season as an assistant, MacLean left for an assistant position with Abbotsford, leaving the Stingrays job to Carbery.

During Carbery’s five seasons in charge, South Carolina went 207-115-38, including an ECHL record 23-game winning streak from Feb. 7-March 27, 2015, finished first in its division twice, reached the conference finals twice and advanced to the 2015 Kelly Cup finals before losing to Allen in seven games.

“Spencer, he was just determined,” Concannon said. “He was detailed. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as Spencer did back in the day and I think those qualities and attributes spread over to Ryan.”

Carbery, who won the John Brophy Award as the ECHL’s coach of the year in 2013-14, left South Carolina following the 2015-16 season to become the coach of Saginaw in the Ontario Hockey League. From there, he went to the AHL with Providence as an assistant for one season (2017-18) and the Capitals affiliate in Hershey as coach for three seasons (2018-2021) before taking an NHL assistant job for two seasons (2021-2023) with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Capitals hired Carbery in 2023 after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Washington went 40-31-11 in his first season to earn the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

He hopes to build on that this season but never forgets where and with whom he started.

“I felt like I was getting a master class every day from being around ‘Bedsie’ and Cail and Ryan,” he said. “So, you’re just becoming a better coach each and every day by being able to steal ideas. ‘That’s a great idea. Wow.’ And I think where it starts is quality, quality people.”

* * *

Unlike Bednar and Carbery, Warsofsky knew his calling was behind the bench. Unlikely to make the NHL as a 5-foot-9 defenseman, he’d begun thinking about going into coaching before the 2012 hip surgery that ended his brief professional playing career, which included a stint with Turnhout in the Belgian Hockey League in 2011-12.

Warsofsky was 24 when he landed his first coaching job as an assistant at his alma mater, Division III Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, in 2012. After one season at Curry, he heard the Stingrays had an opening for an assistant and emailed Concannon on a whim.

“It was just more of a feeler,” Warsofsky said, “and I remember my phone ringing and it was a Charleston number and it was 10 minutes after I sent the email.”

As Massachusetts natives, Warsofsky and Concannon had some mutual friends, but didn’t know each other directly. Still, Concannon called Warsofsky immediately and decided to show his resume to Carbery.

“Robby being a Boston guy says, ‘I think you should take a look at this one. I just got his resume today, Ryan Warsofsky,’” Carbery said. “And two of his three references are Mike Sullivan and Ray Bourque.”

Warsofsky was neighbors with Sullivan, the Pittsburgh Penguins coach, in Marshfield, Massachusetts. In fact, Sullivan’s parents are Warsofsky’s godparents. Warsofsky is also friends with Bourque’s sons, Chris and Ryan, and played two years at Cushing Academy (2005-07) in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, when the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman was an assistant coach there.

“So, I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m not calling Ray Bourque,’” Carbery said, laughing. “So, I pick up the phone and call Ray Bourque and go, ‘Hey Ray, you’re a reference on Ryan Warsofsky’s resume.’”

Having Sullivan and Bourque as references helped Warsofsky get his foot in the door, and he took over from there, convincing Carbery and Concannon he was the right man for the job.

© South Carolina Stingrays

Warsofsky remembers meeting Carbery on his first day at the North Charleston Coliseum loading dock door and said, “He just kind of threw me right into the fire.

“At the end of the year, I go, ‘Carbs’ what can I do better? I want to continue to learn. And he’s like, ‘No, you’re on the right path. You’re doing a great job.’ And he goes, ‘The one thing I liked about you is you asked a million questions.’ And that’s what I tried to do.”

Warsofsky learned from Carbery for three seasons as his assistant. When Carbery left for Saginaw in 2016, Warsofsky took over as coach.

The Stingrays were 40-28-4 and went the Kelly Cup finals in his first season. They were 48-16-8 the next season but lost in the first round of the 2018 playoffs.

The next season, Warsofsky took a job as an assistant under Mike Vellucci with Charlotte, which was the Carolina Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate at the time. After Charlotte won the Calder Cup in 2019, Vellucci left to coach Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Warsofsky was promoted.

When the Hurricanes shifted their AHL affiliation to Chicago in 2020, Warsofsky made the move with them. Chicago was 71-25-13 in his two seasons as coach and won the Calder Cup in 2022. That led to the opportunity to join Quinn’s staff as an assistant for the rebuilding Sharks.

Quinn was let go after San Jose was 19-54-9 and finished last in the NHL last season. The Sharks promoted Warsofsky and entrusted him with guiding their young team, including Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, through the next step of their rebuild.

Warsofsky believes his experiences prepared him for that challenge, beginning with his tenure with South Carolina.

“Honestly, it changed my life, like Spencer pointed out about [Bednar’s] call,’” he said. “This changed my life. I’m probably not here and coaching. Who knows what I’m doing?”

* * *

Ask those who have worked there why South Carolina has been able to produce three NHL head coaches, and they first cite the stability and support provided by ownership. The Zucker family, headed by Jerry and Anita Zucker and later their son Jonathan, was part of the Stingrays ownership group since 1994, including solely owning the team from 2011 until selling controlling interest to private equity investor and businessman Todd Halloran in 2018.

That continuity helped South Carolina become the ECHL’s second longest-tenured team in its market behind Wheeling, which moved to West Virginia from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1992.

“Anytime you see a good organization, you look to ownership, and you see good owners,” Abbott said. “They really let the coaches run the hockey operations. They were big fans, they were at almost all the games, but they would never really step in and say, ‘Why is this kid playing over that kid?’ or ‘What’s wrong with the power play?’ That just didn’t happen. They’d hire good people, and they’d get out of the way.”

That trust from ownership was appreciated by the coaches and management and helped foster a family atmosphere that’s been extended over multiple generations of Stingrays teams. Concannon has been another key proponent.

“I think its unmeasurable really,” Bednar said of Concannon’s contribution. “He’s highly competitive. He understands the history of the organization and how important that is. I think the alumni and keeping everyone involved, that’s all part of the winning culture that’s here and he takes a lot of pride of connecting all new players and the players that have retired here and stick around.”

A popular former Stingrays forward who settled in Charleston after retiring in 2003, Concannon ran a bar and worked in real estate until Abbott recommended him to the Zuckers as his replacement as team president in 2010. Abbott, who left to become president of the Kings’ AHL team in Manchester (now Ontario), believed Concannon was the right man for the job because of “his passion for the team and his passion for the community.”

“I knew he could figure out the business side,” Abbott said. “When he started, he had a long way to go. But his heart is with that team and that city. I knew he would figure it out because he really cares, and he did. He’s great.”

Carbery called Concannon “one of those glue people that keeps everybody connected.” When Bednar coached in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Concannon went to Denver to root on his former teammate. When Carbery had his introductory news conference in Washington last year and Warsofsky had his in San Jose in June, Concannon was there to support them, too.

“He’s the one that built this foundation and built this fraternity that we have,” Warsofsky said. “What I think is good about Rob for me too is he pushes you and he challenges you to make sure you’re on toes a little bit. … He cares about you. He wants you to do better. He wants you to move up.”

Concannon deflects the credit back to the coaches.

“The guys who have played and coached here over the years have a lot of pride in the relationships that we’ve built with one another and have helped these guys through the years, and it’s great to see,” Concannon said. “They’ve also worked their tails off at being where they are today.”

* * *

Being an ECHL coach is an all-encompassing job.

“You wear a lot of different hats,” Warsofsky said. “You’re booking the travel. You’re booking meals. There’s a lot of transactions.”

© South Carolina Stingrays

The coach is also responsible for recruiting players. Some are provided by NHL and AHL affiliates, but the rest of the roster needs to be filled out internally, and sometimes players need to be added during the season because of call-ups.

“Coaching is the easiest part of the job, to be honest with you,” Fitzsimmons said. “You’ve got the immigration. You’ve got the hotel. You’ve got the buses. You’ve got the recruiting. You’re on the phone, it’s on your ear the whole time.”

It was even harder when they were assistants, who work long days — Warsofsky had some when he’d arrive at the arena at 6 a.m. and didn’t leave until 9 p.m. — and needed to do additional work to supplement their salaries. Fitzsimmons remembers MacLean, who was a part-time assistant in 2008-09 while finishing his degree in business administration at The Citadel in Charleston, making $100 a game. Carbery and Warsofsky made similar salaries.

The Stingrays helped by letting them use the rink to coach youth hockey and give private lessons. Carbery also took a part-time job painting houses to help make ends meet.

It required sacrifice from the coaches and their families, along with a dedication to their craft.

“Certainly, we were very fortunate even that we could do it and a big part of it was that our spouses were able to support us in being able to get through those years,” MacLean said. “That was something that was a big leap of faith.”

They’ve leaned on each other along the way, sharing their experiences so they could learn and advance.

Carbery and Warsofsky text or talk almost every day. Bednar has been there for them as well — and vice versa.

When Warsofsky was deciding whether to leave Chicago to take the San Jose assistant job in 2022, he had a lengthy phone conversation with Bednar to discuss the opportunity. Carbery had a similar discussion with Bednar before he left Hershey to become an assistant with Toronto in 2021.

“Any time you had a question in the season, or something wasn’t going right, the willingness to help each other in the whole organization from Rob to the coaches, that was incredible,” Carbery said. “I can’t speak to other situations, but I know I’ve spent hundreds of hours picking their brains and becoming a better coach from that.”

The willingness also extends to current South Carolina coach Jared Nightingale, who was hired May 17 after three seasons as an assistant with Rockford in the AHL.

“Even during the process, Spencer and Ryan called me and [asked] if I have any questions,” Nightingale said. “The hockey world is like that. Guys are humble and feel comfortable to ask questions and they were great. Not long ago, they were climbing the ranks.”

* * *

The Stingrays coaches’ text chain can include some discussion of hockey strategy during the offseason, but they usually stay away from it in-season, when the focus turns to trying to beat each other. So, when Colorado visits San Jose on Oct. 20 and Washington on Nov. 21, and San Jose plays in Washington on Dec. 3, there will be no holding back.

“The day before we might chat,” Carbery said. “But once the game gets going — and I coached against [Warsofsky] in the American Hockey League a bunch in Charlotte — it’s game on.”

How competitive does it get? Warsofsky admitted he changed Charlotte’s neutral-zone forecheck for one game against Hershey to give Carbery and his players a different look from what they saw on their pre-scout video.

“I always try to throw a little wrinkle at ‘Carbs,’” Warsofsky said.

Even on the golf course that afternoon, the hockey talk tailed off later in the round and the competitiveness picked up, along with the trash talk.

“Because, you know, it’s us wanting to win,” Carbery said. “Then, it starts to get to the, ‘All right, now we’re going double it.’ But the most experienced coach, he was the loser on the day.”

Warsofsky had the low score, but Carbery walked away with the money from their friendly wager after winning a string of holes at the end. Afterward, the hockey conversations resumed.

Warsofsky relied heavily this summer on Bednar and Carbery in preparing for his first season as an NHL coach. They inherited similar situations, taking over teams that had missed the playoffs the prior season and were seeking a culture change.

“It is going to be a lot coming at me and you get pulled in different directions and you’ve got to stay grounded,” Warsofsky said. “But you also have to in our situation in San Jose, let’s be honest, we’re not going win the Stanley Cup next year. It’s going to take some time, so how do we develop and find success when we’re not maybe winning a lot of hockey games? And how do we continue to push the envelope with our players and develop our players?

“So, those have all been a lot of talking points for myself with ‘Beds’ and ‘Carbs.’”

In a way, Warsofsky and Carbery are following in Bednar’s footsteps. The League’s third longest-tenured coach behind Sullivan (10th season with Pittsburgh) and Jon Cooper (13th seasons with Tampa Bay), Bednar went through what they are experiencing as young NHL coaches and emerged to become a Stanley Cup champion.

“I think when you saw ‘Beds’ have success it did give you a little, at least for me, of like, ‘OK, that’s the best league in the world and he’s one of the best coaches. I can do this, or I can aspire to get to that level and be successful at that level,’” Carbery said. “And you’re also proud, too. You’re like, ‘I know him!’”

Bednar doesn’t view himself as paving the way for Carbery and Warsofsky, noting that other ECHL head coaches made it to the NHL before him.

“But to see the success that they’re having, there is a big sense of pride not just for myself knowing that I had some little part in helping these guys have success, but knowing that they came from the same organization as me and the Stingrays,” Bednar said. “Obviously, this organization is near and dear to my heart. It gave me my start. It gave me so much opportunity to try to build success.

“I know their paths when it comes to this part of their journey.”