Hershey Signs D.J. King, Immediately Loans Him to South Carolina Stingrays

The Hershey Bears added 25-year-old defenseman D.J. King to an American Hockey League contract for the remainder of the 2025-26 season and promptly loaned him to their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, the club announced through vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer. The move formalizes a season of short-term AHL stints for King and keeps him in the Capitals organization pipeline while providing the Stingrays a steady, experienced blueliner down the stretch.

King, listed at 6-foot-3 and 216 pounds, has split time this season between the ECHL and AHL. Team releases credit him with 27 games for South Carolina this season, producing one goal and one assist, while other local reporting gave a slightly lower games-played total of 25. Those same team sources list King with 191 career ECHL games and 27 career ECHL points (8 goals, 19 assists), though one local outlet reported 189 games; the points total is consistent across accounts. In the AHL, King has appeared in eight games this season while skating on professional tryout contracts with Hershey and the Iowa Wild, and he has 16 career AHL games with two assists to his name across stops that include Hershey, Iowa, Grand Rapids, and Rockford.

King’s season has included a handful of notable moments. His lone prior appearance for Hershey this season on Nov. 16 versus Lehigh Valley produced the primary assist on Hershey’s game-tying goal in a 2-1 overtime victory. He signed a PTO with the Iowa Wild on Jan. 7, 2026, skated in seven games for Iowa and logged two penalty minutes before being released and returning to the Stingrays on Feb. 5. King originally signed an ECHL contract with South Carolina on Aug. 25, 2025 and attended Hershey’s 2025 training camp, so the AHL contract reunites him with an organization familiar with his game.

From an organizational standpoint, the transaction gives Hershey more controllable depth on the left side of the blueline as it navigates the grind of the AHL schedule, while South Carolina gains an AHL-contracted presence on its roster for crucial late-season games and promotional home stands such as the mid-February slate. The family angle adds texture: Hershey’s release noted King is the son of Bears head coach Derek King, a detail that reinforces the developmental and personal ties between the AHL club and its younger players.

For fans, the signing signals stability for a player who has been shuttling on PTOs and offers the Stingrays a hometown-ready defenseman for upcoming games. Keep an eye on game logs and official box scores for final stat reconciliation, but the immediate takeaway is clear: Hershey has secured a reliable depth option and South Carolina will deploy him as it chases playoff positioning and special-event crowds in February.