Four years ago, South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Connor Moore was a first-year pro just looking to make a roster in the ECHL.

Moore played sparingly during his COVID-shortened rookie season, appearing in just 28 games.

In three days, the Cummings, Ga., native will be the Stingrays’ lone representative in the the ECHL All-Star game in Savannah, just a few hours’ drive from his hometown.

“My rookie year we had a lot of experienced defensemen on the roster, and I probably only played half the game,” said Moore, who has four goals and 19 assists in 32 games so far this season. “So, to think about where my pro career started to where it is now, being named to an all-star game that is going to be played in Savannah is amazing. It’s such an honor to be selected to this game.”

Moore, 26, was the eighth or even ninth defensemen some games on the Stingrays’ depth chart during that first season. He spent many nights up in the stands at the North Charleston Coliseum during the 2020-21 season watching older, veteran defensemen lead the Stingrays to a Kelly Cup final.

Moore wasn’t idle while sitting in the upper decks of the coliseum. He was absorbing information, picking up subtle nuances from his more senior teammates like Doyle Somerby, Max Gottlieb, Blake Hillman and Macoy Erkamps — guys who had played in the American Hockey League and even in the NHL.

Then after games and during practices were done, he’d pepper his teammates with questions.

“I would sit up in the stands and watch the defensemen and pick up little things that they were doing,” Moore said. “I know I asked those guys a million questions that year. They’d been playing, four, five and six years, so I wanted to pick their brains to see what had made them successful at the pro level.”

When he was a healthy scratch on game days, Moore began to hone his craft, working with assistant coaches and taking what he’d learned from the veterans and translating that onto the ice.

“When Connor wasn’t playing, we’d work on his game,” said Stingrays coach Brenden Kotyk. “That first year, he was learning how to play at the pro level and that always takes guys a while to make that transition from college to pro. You could tell he wanted to learn and that he wanted to get better, and he put in the work.”

Moore became a regular in the Stingrays’ lineup during his second season and by the end of his third year, he was named an alternate captain.

“He has really grown as a player,” Kotyk said. “It seems like every summer he’d come back and have added another element to his game. He got better in his own zone, then his passing and skating got better.

“He started to become a leader and he earned that letter at the end of last season. It’s been great to see him mature and develop as a player.”

At 5-10 and 180 pounds, Moore has learned over the past four seasons how to work smarter on the ice.

“A lot of times I’m giving up a few inches and 20, sometimes 30 pounds against the bigger forwards in the league,” Moore said. “I’m not going to be able to outmuscle those guys in front of the net or in the corners. I’m going to have to out-compete and outsmart them, use my stick, my skating to overcome their size.”

Moore’s career has come full circle; now the young players are coming to him for advice.

“It’s kind of humbling when they ask me questions, but that’s part of the game,” Moore said. “Having those guys help me develop and get better when I was first starting out was a huge for me, so I’m happy to pass along what I’ve learned to the younger guys.”