San Diego Gulls

       Owner(s)Henry Samueli & Susan SamueliGeneral managerRick PatersonHead coachMatt McIlvaneCaptainChase De LeoMediaSan Diego Union-Tribune
KGB-AM (San Diego Sports 760)
AHL.TV (Internet)AffiliatesAnaheim Ducks (NHL)
Tulsa Oilers (ECHL)Websitesandiegogulls.comFranchise history2000–2015Norfolk Admirals2015–presentSan Diego Gulls Current season

The San Diego Gulls are a professional ice hockey team based in San Diego, California, that competes in the American Hockey League (AHL). The Gulls began play in the 2015–16 season. The team plays its home games at Pechanga Arena. The Gulls are the affiliate team of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Anaheim Ducks.

History

On January 29, 2015, the Anaheim Ducks announced that they would purchase their American Hockey League the Norfolk Admirals, and would be moving the team to San Diego as one of five charter members of the AHL's new Pacific Division. The team plays at the Pechanga Arena San Diego, the sixth professional hockey team to play there, following the original San Diego Gulls of the WHL (1966–74), the San Diego Mariners of the WHA (1974–1977), the San Diego Hawks/Mariners of the Pacific Hockey League (1977–1979), the second San Diego Gulls of the IHL (1990–1995), and the third San Diego Gulls of the West Coast Hockey League (1995–2003) and later the ECHL (2003–2006).^[1] The team is the fifth hockey team in San Diego to use the "Gulls" name.

The Gulls' name, logo and colors were revealed on February 22, 2015 at HockeyFest.^[2][3] HockeyFest was deemed a success, drawing over 8,500 enthusiastic hockey fans.^[4]

The San Diego Gulls played their first home game on October 10, 2015, against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The team finished its inaugural season with an average attendance of 8,675, second in the league after the Hershey Bears.^[5]

After four seasons and three playoff appearances, the Anaheim Ducks promoted Gulls' head coach Dallas Eakins to the same position with the Ducks.^[6] Former Florida Panthers' head coach Kevin Dineen was hired as the next head coach.^[7]

Approaching the delayed 2020–21 season, due to COVID-19 pandemic considerations, the Gulls announced they would temporarily relocate and play the season out of the Ducks' practice rink, Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena, in Irvine, California.^[8] The Gulls finished third in the Pacific Division and lost in the semifinals to the second place Bakersfield Condors in division postseason tournament. After two seasons, the Ducks did not extend head coach Dineen, instead hiring former Laval Rocket head coach Joel Bouchard.^[9] After a lackluster season under Bouchard, the Gulls would hire long-time AHL head coach Roy Sommer to be their fourth head coach in team history. In Sommer's only season as head coach of the Gulls, the Gulls finished with the least amount of points in the AHL. He retired at the end of the season.^[10][11]

Matt McIlvane was hired as the new coach for the 2023–24 season, specifically due to his experience of working with younger players.^[11]

Rivalries

Ontario Reign

The Gulls consider the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings' AHL affiliate, to be their chief rivals and advertise games as "Rivalry Night".

The rivalry has been fueled by each teams' respective NHL affiliates, with Ontario being an affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, and San Diego being affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks. Both Anaheim and Los Angeles share an intense rivalry dubbed the Freeway Faceoff.

Both fanbases of Ontario and San Diego are best known for traveling to away games at the other teams' respective arena, Toyota Arena in Ontario and Pechanga Arena in San Diego on numerous occasions throughout the respective season while firing off chants of "Go Reign Go" or "Let's Go Gulls" while inside the opposing venue.^[12][13]

The teams faced each other in the 2016 division finals, where the Reign defeated the Gulls 4–1 in a best-of-seven series.^[14] San Diego then defeated the Reign in the 2017 Calder Cup playoffs 3-games-to-2 in the division semifinals. Ontario would one-up San Diego with another postseason series victory after sweeping San Diego 2 games to none during the 2021–22 playoffs.

Bakersfield Condors

In what is more of a rivalry from teams of the past, the Gulls have shared a longstanding rivalry with the Bakersfield Condors, the affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers.

Bakersfield, then known as the Bakersfield Fog from 1995 until 1998 when the franchise was rebranded as the Condors and San Diego were charter members of the West Coast Hockey League from its inception in 1995 until the league was absorbed by the East Coast Hockey League in 2003.

That 2015–16 season saw Bakersfield and San Diego have multiple fights and line brawls broke out during a game played at Mechanics Bank Arena. Each team has scored a postseason series victory over their respective foes.

Notably, on May 3, 2019, in the Pacific Division Finals of the 2018–19 Calder Cup playoffs, the Gulls defeated the Condors 3–2 in quadruple overtime for the 1–0 series lead. Maxime Comtois scored the game winning goal 4:20 into the fourth overtime period and it ended the game after five hours and ten minutes of gameplay. San Diego would upset Bakersfield by winning the series 4 games to 2. Bakersfield played San Diego during the COVID-shortened 2020–21 Pacific Division playoffs, defeating San Diego 2 games to 1 in the best of 3 series.

Tucson Roadrunners

The Gulls also share a rivalry with the Tucson Roadrunners, the AHL affiliate of the Utah Hockey Club and formerly the Arizona Coyotes affiliate. San Diego and Tucson's rivalry has been dubbed the "I-8 Border Cup" with the winner of each season's series between the two teams being presented with the "I-8 Border Cup Trophy", which has been in the possession of the Roadrunners since the 2018–19 season. As of the 2023–24 season, the two teams have faced each other 72 times during the regular season, which is the highest number of games that the Roadrunners have played against any opponent. The Roadrunners current record against the Gulls is 38–31–2–1, with the Roadrunners winning the 2023–24 season series 7–1–0–0.

Season-by-season records

Regular season												Playoffs
Season	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	Pts	PCT	GF	GA	Standing	Avg. attendance	Year	Prelims	1st round	2nd round	3rd round	Finals
2015–16	68	39	23	4	2	84	.618	208	200	2nd, Pacific	8,675	2016	—	W, 3–1, TEX	L, 1–4, ONT	—	—
2016–17	68	43	20	3	2	91	.669	221	178	2nd, Pacific	8,876	2017	—	W, 3–2, ONT	L, 1–4, SJ	—	—
2017–18	68	36	28	3	1	76	.559	202	197	5th, Pacific	9,305	2018	—	Did not qualify
2018–19	68	36	24	5	3	80	.588	239	221	3rd, Pacific	9,021	2019	—	W, 3–1, SJ	W, 4–2, BAK	L, 2–4, CHI	—
2019–20	57	30	19	6	2	68	.596	185	164	4th, Pacific	7,582	2020	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	44	26	17	1	0	53	.602	153	142	3rd, Pacific	—	2021[a]	—	BYE	BYE	L, 1–2, BAK	—
2021–22	68	28	33	4	3	63	.463	197	223	7th, Pacific	6,992	2022	L, 0–2, ONT	—	—	—	—
2022–23	72	20	49	2	1	43	.299	180	281	10th, Pacific	6,953	2023	Did not qualify
2023–24	72	26	35	10	1	63	.438	216	245	9th, Pacific	7,249	2024	Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Updated July 11, 2024.^[15]

Team roster

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Contract
–		Ryan Carpenter	C	R	33	2024	Oviedo, Florida	Gulls
39		Anthony Costantini	D	R	21	2023	Hamilton, Ontario	Gulls
–		Dillon Heatherington	D	L	29	2024	Calgary, Alberta	Gulls
42		Travis Howe	RW	R	30	2022	Hull, Massachusetts	Gulls
–		Roman Kinal	D	L	25	2024	Waterford, Michigan	Gulls
41		Andrew Lucas	D	R	25	2024	Alexandria, Virginia	Gulls
–		Roland McKeown	D	R	28	2024	Listowel, Ontario	Gulls

Team captains

Team records and leaders

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers for the San Diego Gulls in the AHL. Figures are updated after each completed season.^[16]

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game;   = current Gulls player

Points

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
Chase De Leo	C	228	69	117	186	.82
Sam Carrick	C	222	86	95	181	.82
Corey Tropp	RW	205	64	93	157	.76
Kalle Kossila	LW	170	51	90	141	.83
Nikolas Brouillard	D	167	22	70	92	.55
Andrew Agozzino	LW	103	39	52	91	.88
Jacob Perreault	RW	161	32	59	91	.56
Benoit-Olivier Groulx	C	145	39	51	90	.62
Brandon Montour	D	104	25	64	89	.85
Kevin Roy	LW	125	31	57	88	.70

References

External links

• Official website