San Diego Gulls 2025-26 Season Preview

By Thomas Harrington

The San Diego Gulls begin the 2025-2026 season on Friday in Coachella Valley against the Firebirds. San Diego had a lot of success in their first several years as Anaheim’s primary AHL affiliate. However, the team has struggled in recent years and hasn’t qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2022, when they lost in the preliminary round. The Gulls have not had a deep playoff run since 2021. After failing to get back to the postseason for the last several years, San Diego is itching to get back to the playoffs. They’ll be led by Matt McIlvane in his third season behind the bench. 

One area where the Gulls have really struggled recently has been in net. The bulk of the starts will likely go to Ville Husso, with Calle Clang backing him up. Thomas Suchanek will likely get a decent amount of playing time as well.  Vyacheslav Buteyets could also get some playing time, but he’ll likely spend a majority of the season in the ECHL, similar to what he did last year. 

Husso has over 150 games of experience in the AHL, and played well for San Diego to end last season. Suchanek missed all of last season, but put up very good numbers in the 2023-2024 season. Clang has struggled in his two AHL seasons and will be looking to put up a better performance this year. Buteyets has two games of AHL experience in his career and he’ll be looking to build on that this season. Both Suchanek and Buteyets will start the year in the ECHL.

On The Blueline

On the backend, the Gulls have Noah Warren, Ian Moore, Tyson Hinds, Tristan Luneau, Stian Solberg, Nikolas Brouillard, Roland McKeown, and Konnor Smith. It remains to be seen how much time Moore and Luneau spend in San Diego as both should see time in the NHL this year as well. Hinds could also get called up to Anaheim. The Gulls could also call up Jeremie Biakabutuka, Roman Kinal, and Will Francis from the ECHL. All three were recently assigned to Tulsa.

This will be Smith, Solberg, and Moore’s first full professional season in North America, while Luneau and Warren will be entering their sophomore campaigns. Hinds has two years of AHL experience, playing in 71 games each of the past two seasons. Brouillard and McKeown are both AHL veterans; this will be McKeown’s second season in San Diego. Brouillard is returning to the Gulls, having last played for them in the 2022-2023 season.

Forwards

At forward, San Diego has Jan Mysak, Justin Bailey, Sasha Pastujov, Nathan Gaucher, Matthew Phillips, Yegor Sidorov, Nico Myatovic, Ryan Carpenter, Travis Howe, Cal Burke, Judd Caulfield, Drew Elliott, Owen Lindmark, and Ryan Lautenbach. Pastujov, Gaucher, and Sidorov could all spend time in Anaheim, but I think most of them will play most of the season in San Diego. Tim Washe will start the year in Anaheim, but will likely see time in San Diego for much of the season too. Jaxsen Wiebe could also get called up from the ECHL; he was recently assigned to Tulsa.

This will be Washe’s rookie season, while Sidorov and Myatovic are entering their sophomore campaigns. This will be Pastujov, Caulfield, and Gaucher’s third season in San Diego. Pastujov will be looking to put up some big numbers in the AHL, Caulfield will be looking to continue to play solid defensive hockey, and Gaucher will be looking to bounce back from a difficult sophomore season. This will also be Mysak’s third season in the AHL, and his second full season with the Gulls. Bailey, Phillips, Burke and Carpenter are all AHL veterans and will be counted on to be some of the offensive leaders on this club. Howe is another AHL veteran, but he’ll be counted on for his physical presence instead of his scoring ability. This will be his third full season in San Diego. This will also be Elliott, Lindmark, and Lautenbach’s rookie AHL season. Elliott played in the USports league last year, while both Lindmark and Lautenbach were in the NCAA.

There are a number of Anaheim prospects who could join the Gulls towards the end of their season. Players in Canadian Juniors like Ethan Procyszyn, Maxim Masse, Tarin Smith, Noah Read, Brady Turko, Emile Guite, and Alexis Mathieu could all join the Gulls when their season ends. They don’t need to be signed to their entry-level deal with the Ducks or be finishing their junior career. As long as their season ends early enough, they could sign an ATO, finish the year with the Gulls, and then return to juniors next season. That’s what Konnor Smith did after his season in the OHL ended in the 2023-2024 season. He then also joined the Gulls this past season when he finished his OHL career. However, all of these players will be hoping to go deep in their respective league playoffs. And then if they win that, then play for the Memorial Cup. If that happens for any of them, don’t expect to see them in San Diego.

The other junior eligible player who could see time in San Diego is Beckette Sennecke. He’s starting the year in Anaheim, but it remains to be seen if he stays for the entire season or gets sent back to juniors. I think there’s a good chance that at some point he’s scratched for several games so he can be sent to San Diego for a conditioning assignment. However, if he’s playing well enough for the Ducks, then he could stay in the NHL for the entire year.

Players in the NCAA will need to sign a professional contract to join the Gulls, meaning their college career would be ending. The Ducks have a number of prospects in the NCAA, but only one senior, Kyle Kukkonen. When his season ends, unless he chooses to pursue free agency over the summer, he’ll likely sign either an ATO or his entry-level deal and join the Gulls. Michael Callow is a junior so there’s a possibility he turns pro after his college season ends, but I think he’ll spend four years at Harvard University. The final NCAA prospect who could turn pro at the end of the season is Roger McQueen. This will be his freshman season at Providence college. If he can have a dominant first year there, I could see him signing his entry-level deal and then joining either Anaheim or San Diego.

Last year, both Solberg and Damian Clara surprised me by coming stateside and joining San Diego. Both the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan end their seasons in March, which means Clara, Lucas Pettersson, or Herman Traff could join the Gulls late in the season. It’s unlikely, but Clara and Solberg both surprised me last year.

Anaheim has a very deep prospect pool, and while most of the top prospects won’t be in San Diego, the Gulls will have some top end talent. Hopefully with another year of experience under their belts, players like Luneau, Pastujov, Sidorov, Gaucher, Clang, Hinds, and Mysak, along with newcomers like Washe, Moore, and Solberg, can help lead them back to the Calder Cup Playoffs. 

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Oct 9th, 2025