The South Carolina Stingrays have been members in the ECHL since the 1993-94 season. NHL multi-time 50 goal scorer Rick Vaive was the team’s first head coach, lasting for five years. The Stingrays have won the Kelly Cup championship on three occasions to date, the most recent in 2008-09. The team plays out of the 10,537 seat North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, South Carolina. Currently, the Stingrays are affiliated with the Boston Bruins of the NHL and the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League. The team has retired three jersey numbers
Number 12 is retired in honour of the late Mark Bavis. Mark played just three years of pro hockey between 1993-94 and 1995-96 with a total of 87 regular season and 17 playoff games with South Carolina. Mark was selected in the ninth round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, 181st overall. He chose to play four years at Boston University between 1989-90 and 1992-93.
Bavis was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he was aboard flight 175 that hit the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Mark died beside fellow Kings scout Garnet ‘Ace’ Bailey. His jersey number was retired by the Stingrays just before the start of the 2001-02 ECHL season.
Number 14 is retired by Carolina in honour of David Seitz. David played nearly 500 regular season and nearly 60 playoff games with the Stingrays between 1996-97 and 2003-04. He totalled a very respectable 587 regular season and 73 playoff points over that time. His final season of pro hockey was played in 2004-05 with the Lubbock Cotton Kings of the Central Hockey League. Interspersed in his years with the Stingrays were 17 games with the Rochester Americans of the AHL and seven games with the Chicago Wolves of the IHL.
Seitz helped the Stingrays to two of their three Kelly Cup titles. In 1996-97, the Louisiana IceGators fell to Carolina four games to one. In 2000-01, it was another five game series with the Trenton Titans the victim. David was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2012.
Number 24 is retired in honour of Brett Marietti. Brett is the only Canadian of the three players and played his junior hockey with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League before turning pro. With exception of 1993-94 when he played in the AHL with the Rochester Americans, Marietti played his entire pro hockey career with the Stingrays.
Between 1994-95 and 2002-03, Brett played 550 regular season games, contributing 481 points and sitting 1,127 minutes in the penalty box. He played 69 playoff games for the club and totalled 62 points. His jersey number was retired in 2003 and he served one season as assistant coach with the club in 2003-04.
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