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AHL San Diego Gulls

San Diego Gulls Season Opening Notes

October 3, 2019 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


GULLS OPEN SEASON TOMORROW NIGHT: The Gulls open the 2019-20 regular season against the Bakersfield Condors tonight at Mechanics Bank Arena (7 p.m., Free Stream: TheAHL.com/AHLTV, Radio: KOGO-600 AM). The Gulls own an all-time record of 153-95-15-8, including 81-45-6-3 at home and 72-49-9-5 on the road. San Diego leads the Pacific Division in all-time wins, and co-leads in points (329) and points percentage (.607%) since the division's inception four seasons ago. San Diego will play six games in October, and have posted a 15-9-3-1 record all-time in the month.

OPENING ACT: Tomorrow marks San Diego's third consecutive season-opening game on the road, and first at Bakersfield. San Diego is 3-1 in season openers, including the first-ever Gulls AHL contest Oct. 10, 2015 vs. Grand Rapids (4-2 win). The Gulls also posted wins Oct. 14, 2016 vs. Tucson (5-3 win) and Oct. 7 at Tucson (7-6 win).

NEW BENCH BOSS: Kevin Dineen enters his first season as head coach of the Gulls, his fourth overall in the Anaheim Ducks organization. Named to post July 15, Dineen was an assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks (2014-18), helping the club to a Stanley Cup in 2015. Dineen previously served as head coach of the Florida Panthers from 2011-13. He spent six seasons as head coach of the Portland (AHL) from 2005-11, including three seasons with the Pirates as Anaheim's primary affiliate (2005-08) where his teams went 135-76-29 (.623%) with two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals (2005, 2008). He was named the recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's outstanding coach in 2005-06. Internationally, Dineen led the Canadian women's national team to a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. He also led Canada's men's national team to a bronze medal at the 2014 Under-18 World Championship and a second-place finish at the 2018 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

HOW THE GULLS WERE BUILT: San Diego's 2019-20 regular-season roster of 26 players includes 16 forwards, eight defenseman and two goaltenders. The roster includes 14 Americans, eight Canadians, one Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian Swedish players. Daniel Sprong (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Andreas Martinsen (Baerum, Norway) are the first from their respective countries to play for San Diego.

Returning players from the organization in 2018-19 (16):

Simon Benoit - D

Kevin Boyle - G

Sam Carrick - C

Max Comtois - LW

Chase De Leo - C

Alex Dostie - LW

Luke Gazdic - LW

Justin Kloos - RW

Jack Kopacka - C

Isac Lundestrom - C

Josh Mahura - D

Scott Moldenhauer - D

Kiefer Sherwood - RW

Patrick Sieloff - D

Daniel Sprong - RW

Corey Tropp - RW

Prospects within the Ducks system turning pro (3):

Hunter Drew - D

Brent Gates Jr. - LW

Antoine Morand - C

Arrived via free agency/trade/PTO (7):

Alex Broadhurst - C

Jani Hakanpaa - D

Andreas Martinsen - LW

Blake Pietila - LW

Andrew Poturalski - RW

Anthony Stolarz - G

Chris Wideman - D

DUCK CALLS: Tonight's Gulls roster includes 17 NHL Draft selections, including eight by the Anaheim Ducks. Five were chosen in the first three rounds by Anaheim, including first round selection Isac Lundestrom (23rd in 2018). Max Comtois (50th in 2017), Antoine Morand (60th in 2017), Brent Gates Jr. (80th in 2015) and Josh Mahura (85th in 2016) also were drafted in the first three rounds.

2018-19 SEASON IN REVIEW: The Gulls finished with a 36-24-5-3 record for 80 points, ranking third in the Pacific Division. San Diego set a new club record for goals in a single season, netting 236 (excluding shootout goals) to rank second among AHL teams (3.51 goals per game). San Diego advanced to the Western Conference Finals of the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time in club history. San Diego defeated San Jose (four games) in the First Round and knocked off Bakersfield, the Western Conference's No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division Finals (six games). The Gulls became the lone Pacific Division club to advance to the Division Finals on three occasions (2016, 2017 and 2019). San Diego (three times), Toronto (four times) and Hershey (three times) are the only AHL clubs to advance to the Division Finals since the inception of the current division format in 2015. The Gulls eventually fell to Chicago in the Western Conference Finals in Game 6 at Allstate Arena.

AMERICA'S FINEST FANS: San Diego led the AHL in attendance for the second straight season in 2018-19 with an average of 9,021 per game, marking the second straight season averaging more than 9,000 per game. San Diego led the AHL in attendance in 2017-18 (9,305 avg.), becoming the first team other than Hershey to lead the AHL in attendance dating to Hershey's 10 straight seasons leading the league from 2007-08 to 2016-17. Since the Gulls inaugural season in 2015-16, San Diego leads the Western Conference and ranks second among AHL clubs (Hershey: 8,978 avg.) in average attendance with 1,219,828 fans to date, (8,969 avg. across the four seasons).

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