With a new coach, reshuffled roster and fresh expectations, the San Diego Gulls drop the puck on a new American Hockey League season Friday night at Ontario’s Toyota Center.
The Gulls are coming off their roughest campaign since making the move to San Diego from Norfolk, Va., prior to the 2015-16 season. Last year’s team finished last in the 10-team Western Division (20-49-2-1) and posted an AHL-low 43 points.
Matt McIlvane replaces Roy Sommer as coach. His Gulls roster will feature several young highly-rated prospects who are key pieces to an Anaheim Ducks prospect pipeline that’s rated by many experts as tops in the NHL.
What that means on the ice will be determined starting this weekend, continue with next Friday night’s home opener against Ontario at Pechanga Arena and play out over the course of the 72-game regular-season schedule.
The Gulls and Reign met for a preseason warmup on Sunday, with Ontario earning a 6-2 victory. San Diego sat several players who should be in the lineup Friday night.
“It’s hard, when a score gets like that, to go in and dive into all of it,” said McIIvane, who is the fourth Gulls head coach in four seasons. “I felt the effort was there, really, all the way. So much learning is available to us in this game, from style of play and decision making, for us as coaches to evaluate players and management to do the same.”
Player evaluation and development will be constant as the Ducks undergo a massive rebuild under the guidance of general manager Pa Verbeek, who hired McIIvane specifically because the 37-year old has experience working with young players.
Recent draft Ducks draft selections who could potentially see time with the Gulls include this year’s top-pick, center Leo Carlsson, as well as defensemen Pavel Mintyukov (first-round pick, 2022), Olen Zellweger (second-round pick, 2021), and Tyson Hande (third-round pick, 2021); forwards Nathan Gaucher (first-round pick, 2022) and Sasha Pastujov (third-round pick, 2021).
Zellweger, a 22-year old Canadian who is one of the organization’s top prospects, has already been assigned to San Diego. He’ll be ed by returning veterans, including forwards Chase De Leo, Brayden Tracey, Josh Lopina and Jacob Perrault, defensemen Drew Helleson and goalies Calle Clung and Gage Alexander.
Defensemen Trevor Carrick, brother of former Gull and current Duck Sam Carrick, returns after a stint with the San Jose organization.
McIIvane and his staff have spent this week working with their squad at Poway Ice in preparation for the weekend’s first two games.
“We learned a lot about Ontario in our preseason game, we got to see pretty much, their full line-up,” McIIvane said. “We’ve had a chance to learn a lot about our kids, to get some looks at some guys, which has been awesome. They’ve certainly earned respect in our locker room. We know we have quite a bit to clean up and we’ve had a lot of learning to get down this week. We think we can get a lot better.”
