via Sarah Hobday
In an interview with Capitals Outsider last month, South Carolina Stingrays President Rob Concannon said he does not expect any issues with the Stingrays and Washington Capitals affiliation agreement being extended.
“Because of the state of the world right now, and the uncertainty of things going on, we haven’t really discussed that,” Concannon said. “I’m sure at the right point, I’m sure we will sit down and go over that. I don’t anticipate there being any issues for us to continuing on our relationship. This year will be the 15th year coming up. I don’t anticipate any issues right now. But with the NHL on hold, and the AHL on hold and our season being canceled, I feel like there will be a time to dive into that, and I look forward to having those discussions again.”
The two-year agreement signed in March 2018, was set to expire after this season.
The Caps have been the Stingrays sole affiliate since the 2015 season. The Caps have been the Rays affiliate for the better part of the last 16 years starting with the 2004-2005 season. The only time the Caps switched affiliates was from 2012-2014 when the Caps were affiliated with the Reading Royals.
To date, there have been 13 former Stingrays to play for Washington. Those mostly include goaltenders such as Braden Holtby, Philipp Grubauer, Pheonix Copley and Michal Neuvirth. In total, there have been 58 players that have played in the ECHL that went on to play for the Caps, including Olie Kolzig, Jay Beagle and Matt Hendricks. Besides Holtby, the only other current Capital to play in the ECHL was Nick Jensen.
The Stingrays are so confident in the affiliation agreement being extended that they have plans in place to unveil a new dark jersey similar to the red ones they wore when they made the Kelly Cup Finals in 2016-17.
“We’re going to be doing something similar for the upcoming season,” Concannon said. “We’ve changed our dark jersey. We’re probably going to bring that out, or unveil it later this summer. It will be similar to what we did [in 16-17].”
