San Diego Gulls

For other uses of the name, please see San Diego Gulls (disambiguation page).
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 their 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). 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. HockeyFest was deemed a success, drawing over 8,500 enthusiastic hockey fans.
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.
After four seasons and three playoff appearances, the Anaheim Ducks promoted Gulls' head coach Dallas Eakins to the same position with the Ducks. Former Florida Panthers' head coach Kevin Dineen was hired as the next head coach.
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. 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. 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.
Matt McIlvane was hired as the new coach for the 2023–24 season, specifically due to his experience of working with younger players.
===Rivalries===
The Gulls consider the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings' AHL affiliate, to be their main rivals and advertise games as "Rivalry Night". The teams faced each other in the 2016 division finals, where the Reign defeated the Gulls 4–1 in a best-of-seven series. San Diego then defeated the Reign in the 2017 Calder Cup playoffs 3-games-to-2 in the division semifinals.
==Season-by-season records==
Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season 	Playoffs	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	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 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	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	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 	44 	26 	17 	1 	0 	53 	.602 	153 	142 	3rd, Pacific 	— 	2021 	— 	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 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
2023–24 	72 	26 	35 	10 	1 	63 	.438 	216 	245 	9th, Pacific 	7,249 	2024 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
==Players==
===Current roster===
Updated April 20, 2024.
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===Team captains===
* Joe Piskula, 2015–16
* Jaycob Megna, 2018–19
* Sam Carrick, 2019–21
* Greg Pateryn, 2021–22
* Chase De Leo, 2022–present
==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.
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
 
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Category:Ice hockey teams in San Diego
Category:Ice hockey clubs established in 2015
Category:Professional ice hockey teams in California