Jared Nightingale era begins as South Carolina Stingrays open 24-25 season

Its been almost a decade, but the memories from that night still linger in the subconscious mind of South Carolina Stingrays coach Jared Nightingale .

It was late spring of 2105, and Nightingale was a rugged defenseman and captain for the ECHLs Toledo Walleye .

The Walleye and Stingrays had been embroiled in a back-and-forth, hard-fought seven-game series to see which team would advance to the ECHLs Kelly Cup finals that season.

In the end, it was the Stingrays who would be moving on to the championship series the clubs fourth appearance in the finals after Joe Devin s triple-overtime series-clinching goal.

(A goal that Nightingale contends to this day should not have been allowed because the Stingrays were offside on the play).

When I tell people that this was probably my best hockey memory, they always look at me funny because they know how competitive I am, said Nightingale, who was named the Stingrays 12th head coach back in May.

It was an unbelievable series.

Two great teams that played the game the right way, battling each other each night.

Stingrays forward Joe Devin scored the game-winning goal in triple overtime of Game 7 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals against the Toledo Walleye.

A sentiment shared by Devin.

Probably the best playoff series I ever played in, Devin said.

Two evenly matched teams.

Toledo had a great team, and Jared was a really tough guy to play against.

That season and series left an indelible mark on Nightingale and indirectly extended his playing career by another two seasons.

I was pretty close to hanging em up that season, Nightingale said.

That series, the experience I had that whole year, and especially in the playoffs, kept me playing for another couple of seasons.

New coach Jared Nightingale instructs players during a Stingrays practice at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Oct.

17, 2024, in North Charleston.

Nightingale will make his head coaching debut on Oct.

19 in South Carolinas season opener when the Stingrays host the Orlando Solar Bears at the North Charleston Coliseum beginning at 6:05 p.m.

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The Stingrays have missed the playoffs just three times since 1993 but have been out of the postseason two of the last three seasons.

The standards here are very high, and thats one of the reasons that I was attracted to this job, said Nightingale, who spent the last three years as an assistant coach of the American Hockey Leagues Rockford IceHogs.

They expect to compete for championships, and so do I.

Nightingale is a bit of an anomaly for the Stingrays organization.

Over the past three decades, the Stingrays have prided themselves on promoting coaches from within the organization.

Nightingale becomes only the third head coach Rick Vaive and Spiros Anastas were the other two that had not been affiliated with the Stingrays organization as either a coach or player.

It was time to take a really hard look at our organization and think about doing some things differently, said Stingrays principal owner Todd Halloran.

Weve been fortunate to be able to promote from within the organization, and thats been successful.

There have been very few times when weve had to go outside the organization to find a head coach, but we felt like we had to do it this time.

After 6 years in Europe, veteran forward buys house in Charleston, signs with SC Stingrays Four former Stingrays head coaches Jared Bednar (Colorado), Spencer Carbery (Washington), Ryan Warsofsky (San Jose) and Cail MacLean (Calgary) have gone on to coach in the NHL.

But getting to the NHL wasn't the reason the former Michigan State defenseman came to the Lowcountry.

Im not foolish enough to think that because I go to South Carolina Ill move up the coaching ranks, Nightingale said.

This is a place that is invested in winning.

Theyve done a great job of paving the way for guys to move up both as players and as coaches.

During his 12-year pro career, Nightingale suited up for more than a dozen different clubs.

Hes played under 15 head coaches, including NHL head coaches Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay), Craig Berube (Toronto) and Derek Lalonde (Detroit).

Nightingale said his coaching style will be a blend of all the coaches he played for during his career.

I want a team that competes every time they step on the ice, he said.

I want us to be hard to play against and for the Coliseum to be a really difficult place to play in.

If a team is going to beat us, I want them to have had to earn it.

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