San Diego Gulls Season Preview

By Thomas Harrington

The San Diego Gulls begin the 2026-2027 season on Saturday in San Jose against the Barracuda. After missing the playoffs for three straight seasons, the Gulls were back in the Calder Cup Playoffs last year, but lost to Colorado in the preliminary round. This year, they’ll be looking to go deeper. San Diego also has a new head coach, as Matt McIlvane is now an assistant coach for the Boston Bruins. In his place, Dave Manson has stepped in to fill the void. Manson served as one of San Diego’s assistant coaches last season.

In net, the Gulls will likely use three goaltenders this season: Laurent Brossoit, Tomas Suchanek, and Damian Clara. As the veteran of the three, Brossoit will likely be the team’s starter. In almost 200 AHL games, he has a career 2.76 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. However, if anything happens to Lukas Dostal or Ville Husso, he’ll be Anaheim bound, leaving San Diego’s net in the hands of the two young goaltenders. Suchanek has had a rough couple of seasons. After a great 2023-2024 season where he was San Diego’s best goaltender, he missed the following year with an injury, and his play was up and down last season. With that season behind him, hopefully he can get back to where he was a few years ago. This will be Clara’s first full year in North America, though he did play a few games to end the season last year, as well as both of San Diego’s playoff games. His numbers with the Gulls weren’t great in those games, but he’s put up some solid numbers in the SHL and at the Olympics. Depending on how things shake out, I expect both to get some time with the Gulls, and wouldn’t be surprised if both Suchanek and Clara also went to the ECHL in order to get more playing time.

On the backend, the Gulls have several players to call on: Noah Warren, Matt Basgall, Jet Woo, Stian Solberg, Travis Mitchell, Jackson Niedermayer, Konnor Smith, Roman Kinal, Corey Schueneman, and Jake Lee. A number of these players will go to the ECHL so they can get playing time, but I’d expect Warren, Woo, Solberg, Mitchell, and Schueneman to be in most nights for the Gulls. However, if the Ducks need help on the blueline, any of those five could also head up to the NHL. Mitchell and Warren were just called up to Anaheim, but I’d expect both to be back in San Diego in the relatively near future.

This will be Solberg and Smith’s second professional season, while Warren is entering his third. Woo, Mitchell, Kinal, and Schueneman are all veterans of several seasons across the ECHL, AHL, and NHL. This will be the first full professional season for Niedermayer, Basgall, and Lee. This is a very different defense for the Gulls than last season, as Tyson Hinds and Tristan Luneau are both in Anaheim, while Roland McKeown and Nikolas Brouillard were not brought back over the summer. Hopefully this new group can gel together quickly and form a stingy blueline for the Gulls.

Up front, the Gulls have James Hamblin, Coulson Pitre, Cruz Lucius, Sean Farrell, Nathan Gaucher, Matthew Phillips, Yegor Sidorov, Nico Myatovic, Ryan Carpenter, Lucas Pettersson, Travis Howe, Anton Wahlberg, Drew Elliott, Ethan Procyszyn, and Herman Traff. Also, Roger McQueen and Judd Caulfield are currently in Anaheim, but both could see some time in San Diego as well. McQueen was also just assigned to the Gulls, but I think he’ll be back in Anaheim very soon. I think Farrell, Gaucher, Myatovic, and Wahlberg are the most likely players to see time in Anaheim as well. However, the recently acquired Lucius could also see time.

This will be Lucius, Pettersson, Procyszyn, and Traff’s first professional season. This will also be Traff’s first season in North America. Sidorov, Myatovic, Wahlberg, and Pitre will all be entering their third professional seasons, while Elliott is entering his second. Gaucher, Farrell, Phillips, Carpenter, Howe, and Hamblin are the team’s veterans, as all have played in at least three or more professional seasons of hockey across the ECHL, AHL, and NHL. Last year’s leading scorer Sasha Pastujov is gone, as is the team’s fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh leading scorers. Justin Bailey left as a free agent, and Luneau, Caulfield, and Sam Colangelo will all start the year in Anaheim and hope to stay there for the entire season. With so much offense gone, a lot will be expected from this group, and the team’s veterans will be counted on to generate a lot of it. Hopefully, some of San Diego’s younger players can also have a big impact as well.

There are a number of Anaheim prospects who could join the Gulls at the end of their seasons. While I don’t expect any of Anaheim’s Canadian Juniors prospects to turn pro next season, there are a few who could sign an ATO to join the Gulls at the end of the season. The Ducks don’t have a ton of players in the CHL this year, but I could see any of Marcus Nordmark, Mathis Preston, Noah Read, Alexis Mathieu, or Brady Turko getting some games with the Gulls at the end of the year.

There is one other junior eligible player who may see time in San Diego, and that’s Nikita Klepov. He’s made the Ducks’ roster to start the season. However, if he’s scratched for enough games, he could end up assigned to the Gulls on a conditioning assignment. I had thought this would happen last year with Beckett Sennecke, but instead he put up a great rookie season. We’ll see how Klepov does this year.

The Ducks have a large number of players playing in the NCAA, and quite a few could see time with the Gulls at the end of the year. Michael Callow is playing in his senior year, and is a good candidate to join San Diego when his college career ends. Austin Burnevik is playing in his junior year, and if he puts up another 20 goal season, I’d expect him to turn pro at the end of the season. Maxim Masse, Alexandre Blais, Tarin Smith, and Emile Guite are all former junior players who will be in the NCAA this season. This will be Blais’ second season playing college hockey, and the first for the other three. If any of these four players has a good enough season, I could see any of them turning pro when their season ends.

The Ducks only have a few prospects playing overseas this season, and I think only a couple of them could join the Gulls when their respective seasons end. Defenseman Lasse Boelius is in the Liiga. Goaltender Elijah Neuenschwander is playing in the SL and could see time in the NL, too. It’s far from a guarantee, but Clara, Pettersson, and Traff all joined the Gulls at the end of last season, and either Boelius or Neuenschwander could this time around.

Anaheim has seen a number of prospects graduate to the NHL ranks in recent years. The Ducks still have a solid group, but it’s not what it once was. However, Anaheim still has some very good prospects in the Gulls, as well as a number of veteran players. With a new coach to lead them, hopefully they can get back to the playoffs and go on a deep playoff run, something they haven’t done since the 2020-2021 season.

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October 2nd, 2026