In conjunction with all ECHL teams, the South Carolina Stingrays announced their Protected List of players heading into the 2016-17 regular season.
The Protected List of players features some prominent names from this season along with names from previous seasons who did not play for the Stingrays in 2015-16. The Stingrays are allowed to do this if the player signed a Standard Player Contract (SPC) and then subsequently signed with an NHL/AHL/international team, all without getting traded or released.
Players like Vitek Vanecek, Caleb Herbert, and Tyler Lewington are not eligible to be protected because their contracts are not with the Stingrays.