Gulls set to open new AHL season with new coaches, seek return to playoffs

Hockey season appears to come a little earlier this year. The San Diego State University men’s ice hockey team faced off its 2026-27 season with a two-game home series against Arizona State University Sept. 4-5 at the Kroc Center Ice Arena. The San Diego Gulls are slated to face off their 2026-27 American Hockey League schedule Saturday, Oct. 3, in San Jose and host the Henderson (Nev.) Silver Knights Oct. 10 in their home opener at Pechanga Arena San Diego.

The Aztecs have already played six games with a 1-5 record following a two-game road swing to the University of Alabama.

The Gulls will play 72 regular season AHL games, including 36 home contests.

The AHL team’s goal will be to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs again after getting a brief taste of postseason experience to punctuate last season.

The Gulls enter the new season with a new head coach, new assistant coaching staff, minus their leading scorer from last season and continued uncertainty about the future of their home nest.

That’s fairly par for the course in minor league hockey.

The Gulls remain the top developmental affiliate of the National Hockey League Anaheim Ducks.

The San Diego roster is stocked with Ducks’ draft picks, free agents signed by both Anaheim and the Gulls and players brought in via trades with other teams or on tryout contracts.

That’s also par for the course in minor league hockey.

The Gulls do enter the 2026-27 season with one major difference from recent ice campaigns. They broke a three-year drought by qualifying for the 2026 Calder Cup playoffs, albeit as the final qualifier in the Pacific Division.

What the new season holds is anyone’s guess.

This season’s squad appears titled toward the younger end with 10 players under the age of 23, 10 Anaheim draft selections, eight AHL free agent signings, five NHL free agent signings and four players acquired through trades.

The season-opening roster features 16 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders.

Fans will find out a bit about the new-look roster when the first puck drops on home ice next week.

The Gulls will not head into the new season blindly after having the luxury of three road games under their skates for the Oct. 10 home debut.

The AHL’s 91^st season faces off Friday, Oct. 2. The Gulls open the 2026-27 ice campaign Oct. 3-4 in San Jose against the host Barracuda and make a pit stop in Coachella Valley on Friday, Oct. 9, before returning to host the Silver Knights.

New bench boss
 The Ducks introduced the sixth head coach in AHL Gulls history on July 20 in the wake of former head coach Matt McIlvane’s decision to leave the Anaheim organization to pursue an assistant coaching position with the NHL Boston Bruins.

The Ducks handed the new coaching reins to Dave Manson, who had served as an assistant coach with the AHL team in 2025-26 overseeing the defense and penalty kill. It’s the first head coaching assignment for Mason, 59, whose background includes more than two decades of coaching experience in both professional and Junior hockey.

“After helping lead the Gulls to the playoffs last season, it was clear Dave made a big impact behind the bench,” Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek said. “Dave brings nearly 25 years of coaching experience, and he will help strengthen the standard of excellence and development we have established in San Diego as head coach.”

Besides Manson’s appointment, Anaheim also named Kelly Buchberger and Steve McCarthy as assistant coaches. They join holdover goaltending coach Jeff Glass and video co-ordinator Lucas Hurtt.

Manson spent parts of three seasons as assistant coach with the NHL Edmonton Oilers from 2022-24 after being promoted from the same role with the AHL Bakersfield Condors. With Edmonton, Manson helped the club reach the 2022 Western Conference Final as well as the 2023 Western Conference second round of the playoffs.

Manson spent four AHL seasons as an assistant coach with the Condors from 2018-22, helping the club to two Pacific Division titles (2019 and 2021). 

The Gulls qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time since 2021-22 during Masnon’s first season with the AHL club. Under his guidance, the Gulls penalty kill ranked eighth among all AHL clubs at 83.5 percent and the club was the second-least penalized team in the AHL (749 penalty minutes).

Manson, a native of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, appeared in 1,103 career NHL games after being tabbed in the first round (11^th overall) in the 1985 Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. He’s lived the life of a professional hockey player across 16 NHL seasons with Chicago, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Phoenix, Montreal, Dallas and Toronto. 

 As a defenseman, he logged 390 points  (102 goals, 288 assists) with the 13th-most penalty minutes in NHL history (2,792). 

Hockey became a family affair as his son Josh was selected by Anaheim in the sixth round (160th overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft and spent eight seasons with the Ducks. Josh helped Colorado to a Stanley Cup championship in 2022.

Making the grade
 The Gulls’ 2026-27 roster began to take shape during the offseason when the club signed seven players to one-year AHL contracts: forwards Drew Elliott, Kyle Kukkonen and Sasha Mutala and defensemen Matt Basgall, Roman Kinal, Jake Lee and Jackson Niedermayer.

Elliott, 23, appeared in 37 games with the Tulsa Poler (ECHL) last season and six games with the Gulls where he notched his first career AHL goal.

A sixth-round pick (162nd overall) by the Ducks in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Kukkonen, 23, collected 64 points in 131 career NCAA gems with Michigan Tech and Wisconsin from 2022-26. He helped the Badgers reach the NCAA championship final in 2026.

Mutual, 25, appeared in 14 games for the Oilers in 2025-26 after being named the 2025-26 Canada West Men’s Hockey Player of the Year with the University of British Columbia.

Basgall, 23, appeared in four regular season games and both playoff games for the Gulls last season on an amateur tryout with a goal and assist and +6 rating. Prior to joining the Gulls, the Lake Forest, Ill. native was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. He recorded 79 points and a +20 rating in 150 career NCAA games with Michigan State from 2022-26.

Kinal, 27, from Waterford, Mich., appeared in 14 games with the Gulls last season and 50 games with San Diego from 2024-26. The 6-2, 190-pound defenseman posted 17 points with 51 PIM and a +21 rating for Tulsa, appearing in six ECHL playoff games for the Oilers in 2024.

Lee, 25, at 6-2, 200 pounds, from Sherwood Park, Alberta, appeared in 14 games with Tulsa last season after being named the 2025-26 Canada West Men’s Hockey Top Defenseman after leading all Sports blue liners in points (34), goals (124) and plus-minus (+37) in 28 games for the University of British Columbia, the first UBC defenseman to earn that honor since 1985.

Niedermayer, 25, appeared in 17 games with Tulsa after wrapping up his NCAA career with Bowling Green State University while leading the Falcons in plus-minus (+16) and ranking second in goals (five) and third in points (17) among defensemen. He is the son of Hockey Hall of Famer and former Anaheim captain Scott Nidermayer. A Newport Beach native, the younger Niedermayer split his NCAA career with Bowling Green and Arizona State University from 2021-26. Across five NCAA seasons, he collected 20 goals, 44 points, 42 PIM and a +17 rating in 124 games.

Also coming back are key veterans Ryan Carpenter and Matthew Phillips.

Carpenter, the San Diego team captain, posted 48 points (17 goals, 31 assists) in 71 games played last season (third on the team in points) while Phillips logged 52 points (16 goals. 36 assists) in 71 games (second ont he teram in points). They represent the team’s veteran foundation.

Not coming back is forward Sasha Pastujov, who was traded by the Ducks to Montreal Canadiens on July 27 for forward Sean Farrell. Pastujov, a third-round selectin (66th overall) int he 2021 NHL Entry Draft by Anaheim, led the gulls in scoring last season with 57 points (21 goas, 36 assists) in 71 games.

The Canadiens signed Pastujov, 23, to a one-year, two-way contract. The former Gull is on loan to start the season ti the Laval Rocket, the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate.

A native of Bradenton, Fla., Pastujov has scored 48 goals and 77 assists in 160 AHL games since making his debut in 2023-24.

Farrell, 24, was drafted by the Habs in 2020 in the fourth round (124th overall) and had played the past three seasons with Laval, collecting 46 goals and 125 points in 182 games.

The Hopkinton, Mass., native recorded 17 goals and 53 points last season to rank third on the team.

New kids on the block
 The building blocks of future Ducks (and Gulls) teams began with the 2026 NHL Entry Draft held June 26-27 in Buffalo, N.Y. Anaheim selected nine players over the seven rounds. They will form the young core of the organization.

The Ducks selected two players in the first round: right wing Nikita Klepov (15th overall) and left wing Marcus Nordmark (28th overall). Anaheim also had two picks in the second round: defenseman Jayden Kurtz (45th overall) and right wing Mathis Preston (50th overall).

Subsequent selections included right wing Rian Chudzinki (third round, 82nd overall), defenseman Eric Frosard (fifth round, 146th overall), goaltender Gleb Peshkov (sixth round, 178th overall) and center Noah Kosick (sixth round, 192nd overall) and defenseman James Rieber (seventh round, 210th overal)

Klepov, 18, led the Ontario Hckey League in scoring as a rookie with 97 points in 67 games for the Saginaw Spirit, the first rookie to lead the OHL in scoring since Patrick Kane in 2006-07.

Nordmark, 18, broke into Sweden’s top professional league as a 17-year-old. He helped Sweden win the gold medal at 2026 World U-18 Junior Championship.

At 6-foot-3, 194 pounds, Kurtz, 18, is a rare high school selection out of Rogers, Minn., where he was a finalist for the top prep player in his home state.

Preston, 17, collected 44 points in 46 Western Hockey League games with Spokane and Vancouver in 2025-26 and represented Canada at the 2026 World U-18 Junior Championship. He helped Spokane reach the WHL championship final with 16 points in 20 playoff games as a 16-year-old.

Kosick is committed to Michigan for the upcoming NCAA season while Frossard is committed to Notre Dame for the 2026-27 season and Rieber is committed to Miami starting in 2027-28.

It’s an obvious investment in the future, perhaps long-term future.

Ducks coaches got a first look at players signed from the 2026 NHL Entry Draft along with prospects still in the system at the team’s development camp in late June and subsequent Rookie Camp/Rookie Faceoff tournament in September.

The 2026 Rookie Faceoff tournament, held Sept. 12-15 in San Jose, included young prospects from the the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, Colorado Avalanche, Utah Mammoth (not Yeti) and Vegas Golden Knights in addition to the Ducks. The young Anaheim roster competed in two tournament games, losing 7-2 to the Avs and 4-1 to the arch-rival Kings.

Cruz Lucius and Kosick scored for the Ducks against Colorado while Lucas Pettersson scored the lone goal against Los Angeles.

The Ducks’ rookie camp roster featured 22 players, among them 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltender. Included in the mix were 17 Anaheim draft picks, including three first-round selections: Roger McQueen (10th overall in 2025), Klepov and Nordmark. Eight of the Ducks; nine 2026 draft picks comprised the roster, which included two trade acquisitions, one free agent signing and two players signed to contracts with the Gulls.

Anaheim’s rookie camp and Rookie Faceoff were under the direction of the Gulls’ newly-installed coaching staff.

The Ducks’ main training camp opened Sept. 17 at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine with 48 players. The NHL club had trimmed its roster to 27 players as of Sept. 30 — 16 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders — as players began to trickle down to the Gulls from roster cuts or were released from tryout contracts for returned to their Junior teams.

San Diego subsequently opened its brief training camp Sept. 22 at Poway Ice. Next up on the agenda was a Sept. 25 exhibition game between  the Gulls and Reign in Ontario.

Players kept trickling in. The day prior to the exhibition matchup, the Ducks assigned seven players from its training camp roster to San Diego. They included center Ethan Procyszyn, right wings Coulson Pitre and Herman Traff, left wing Yegor Sidorov, defensemen Basgall and Konnor Smith and goaltender Damian Clara.

Just prior to Friday’s exhibition game, the Ducks trimmed their roster further with three players assigned directly to the Gulls (centers Pettersson and Anton Wahlberg and Lucius) and five players placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to San Diego (centers Farrell, Nathan Gaucher and James Hamblin and defensemen Corey Schueneman and Jett Woo).

Gaucher and Sidorov finished in a tie for eighth deep in team scoring in 2025 with 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points.  

Clara, who played for Italy in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games, joined the Gulls at the tail end of last season and started both playoff games. In three regular season games, he posted a 1-2 record, 4.04 GAA. In the two playoff contests, he logged a 0-2 record and 3.57 GAA.

Woo, a native of Winnipeg, was drafted 37^th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks and spent five years in the Western Hockey League (four with the Moose Jaw Warriors) before joining the Canucks’ AHL affiliates in Utica and Abbotsford.

He won a gold medal with Canada at the IH18 tournament in 2017 to place his name on the bigger stage. He played five seasons with Abbortsford, winning the 2025 Calder Cup before being traded to San Jose on March 5 earlier this year.

Woo, who is of Chinese and German descent, signed a two-year, two-way free agent contract with the Ducks on July 1.

In 310 career games at all levels, the six-foot, 205-pound defenseman has logged 23 goals, 70 assists, 103 points and 424 penalty minutes. In 32 playoff games, he has seven points and 22 PIM. He played in 22 Calder Cup playoff games during the 2024-25 AHL season with six points and 12 PIM.

Preseason tune-up
 The Gulls listed three goaltenders on their training camp roster: Clara, Jake Sibell and Tomas Suchanek. Sibell appeared in nine games with the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL with a 4-2 record and 2.41 GAA while Suchanek made his return to the Gulls last season after a lengthy injury rehab with a 5-7-4 record and 3.31 GAA.

Suchanek and Clara split time almost equally in the exhibition game, which the Reign captured 4-3 in overtime. Suchanek stopped 13 of 15 shots in 30:43 of ice time while Clara stopped 13 of 15 shots in 30:44 in the planned switch.

Phillips scored the Gulls opening goal, Traff netted the second San Diego goal and Mutala scored in his preseason debut. Carpenter, Sidorov and Zachary Murray each collected an assist.

Manson admitted he saw some initial nervousness from his troops.

“We weren’t very hard on pucks, and we weren’t moving the puck very well, and then in the second we come out and we kind of found our game,” the San Diego becnh boss explained. “We’re able to even up the score, with going to a dirty area and a good one-on-one skill play by Herman (Traff). Then it was a pretty even game, back and forth game. Came down to a skills contest in overtime, and they made a one-on-one play, and our coverages were loose, and there was the difference.”

The Gulls’ game seemed to change by the second period.

“We talked about a couple things in the D zone that we need to tighten up and work on, but I mean these games are for that,” Manson said. “We also learned a lot about players. There’s definitely a lot of positives there to build on, so we expected some things to happen, and we’re just happy our guys competed.

Manson said he is looking forward to leading the Gulls into regular season play. HIs first order will be to break a five-game losing streak to end the 2025-26 season, the final three regular season games and the two-game sweep by Colorado in the playoffs.

“It’s always nice to get going,” he said.” You get your team back, and some guys come down from the big club, and they always add. It’s sad because you see some individuals getting better too that maybe have to move on, but that’s pro hockey. We’ve all been a part of it. It’ll be nice to get some guys down, get to work, have a good work week and work through some structure and some things, and get things ironed out. So, looking forward to it.”

Following the exhibition game, the Gulls trimmed their roster to 24 players (15 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders). Kukkonen and Mutala were assigned to Tulsa wile center Jonny Hooker, right wing Lukas Jirousek, defenseman Luc Salem and Sibell were released from camp invitations.

In advance of the Ducks season opener on Friday (Oct. 2) in Las Vegas, the parent NHL club made additional roster moves. Goaltender Laurent Brossoit and defeseman Travis Mitchell were assigned to San Diego while Murray was released from his camp invite.

Young Guns: The 10 players under the age of 23 on the 2026-27 San Diego roster include Clara, Gaucher, Lucuius, McQueen, left wing Nico Myatovic, Pettersson, Pitre, Procysyn, Sidorov, Smith, defenseman Stian Solberg, Traff and Wahlberg.

Myatovic and Solberg are both Gulls’ returners.

Clara, Gaucher, McQueen, Myatovic, Pettersson, Pitre, Procysyzyn, Sidorov and Solberg were all selected in the first three rounds of the NHL draft by the Ducks. It’s a promising class that will be in session in front of Gulls fans and Anaheim brass.

The puck stops here: Brossoit is no stranger to the AHL. He was signed to an entry-level contract by the NHL Calgary Flames in April 2013 and subsequently traded to Edmonton in November. He became a mainstay for five seasons in the Oilers’ organization in Bakersfield. He signed with Winnipeg in 2018 and spent three seasons in the Jets organization before signing a two-year contract with the Golden Knights.

The Port Alberni, British Columbia native started the 2022-23 season Henderson in the AHL while recovering from hip surgery but soon rejoined the Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup with Vegas in 2023.

Brossoit rejoined Winnipeg for the 2023-24 season, helping the Jets record a league-low 1.99 goals per game on an 82-game season. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks organization in 2024-25 on a two-year contract but surgery kept him out of the lineup for the entirety of the 2024-25 season and all but six games with the AHL Rockford IceHogs while on conditioning assignment.

Chicago traded him to San Jose in January 2026. He signed as a free agent with Anaheim in July. He has an 84-67-13 record in 141 career NHL games with a 2.66 GAA and 0.910 save percentage.

Season in review
The Gulls finished 33-27-8-4 with 78 standings points to secure the seventh and final playoff berth in the 10-team Pacific Division. The Gulls actually finished in a tie with the Tucson Roadrunners (34-28-10) with 78 points but the Gulls won the tiebreaker to advance to postseason play.

The Ontario Reign (47-20-3-2, 99 points) finished as the top seed in the division playoffs, followed by the No. 2 seed Colorado Eagles (41-20. 6-5, 93 points), No. 3 seed Henderson (39-21-7-5, 90 points), No. 4 seed Coachella Valley Firebirds (41-25-6-0, 88 points), No. 5 seed Bakersfield Condors (35-23-11-2, 86 points), No. 6 seed San Jose Barracuda (40-28-2-2, 84 points) and the No. 7 seed Gulls.

The Abbotsford Canucks (28-37-4-3) finished in ninth place while the Calgary Wranglers (23-34-10-5, 61 points) finished at the bottom of the 10-team table.

Calgary won the division in 2022-23 with the AHL’s overall best record.

Jakob Pelletier of the Syracuse Crunch finished as the AHL’s leading point-scorer in 2025-26 with 77 points (28 goals, 49 assists) while Michael DiPietro of the Providence Bruins finished as the league’s top goaltender with a 1.91 goals-against average and 0.930 save percentage to go with a 34-8-1 record.

There were no upsets in the opening round of the Pacific Division playoffs as the Eagles swept the Gulls in two games as did Henderson over San Jose. Coachella Valley needed an extra game in the best-of-three format to slip past Bakersfield 2-1 in games.

Coachella Valley kept the momentum with a 3-2 ouster of the top-seeded Reign in the next round while Colorado skated past Henderson 3-1.

The Eagles took care of the Firebirds, 3-1, in the division finals but fell to the Central Division champion Chicago Wolves, 4-3, in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals.

The Eastern Conference champion Toronto Marlies defeated Chicago, 4-1, to hoist the Calder Cup trophy.

Ice chips
 Besides a new head coach coming on board, the Gulls also were looking for a new voice after Aaron Cooney was named the new play-by-play announcer for the Ducks. Cooney served as the Gulls’ radio and television play-by-play broadcaster the past three seasons.

Cooney will join color analyst Emerson Etem and host Alexis Downie in Anaheim’s audio broadcast booth for all preseason, regular season and postseason games hosted on Ducks Stream.

Cooney has called 15 games on Ducks Stream the past two seasons, including the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs while filling in for longtime Ducks voice Steve Carroll.

“We’re so pleased to name Aaron as the new radio voice of the Ducks,” Anaheim President Aaron Teats said.

Carroll retired last season after speding 50 years in broadcasting, the alst 27 with the Ducks. He has inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame on Jan. 13.

Cooney made his NHL broadcast debut with the Ducks on Jan. 23, 2025, against his hometown Pittsburgh Penguins at the Honda Center.

The Gulls named T.J. Chillot, an eight-year veteran behind the microphone in the AHL, North American Hockey League and Southern Professional Hockey League as their new broadcast voice on Sept. 30. Chillot called 240 games for the AHL Charlotte Checkers from 23021-25, including the team’s Calder Cup Finals appearance in 2024-25.

The Ducks signed left wing Cutter Gauthier to a six-year contract through the 2031-32 season after the 22-year-old posted a 41-goal season to lead Anaheim in points during the 2025-26 regular season and playoffs.

“We are pleased to get Cutter signed to a long-term deal and have him in camp on time,” Ducks general managed Pat Veebeek said of the Sept. 15 transaction. “He is a major part of our young core, a pure goal-scoring talent that will continue progressing into an elite NHL player.”

Gauthier led Anaheim in points during the regular season (41 goals, 69 points in 76 games) and in the Stanley Cup playoffs (four goals, 12 points in 12 games) as the Ducks advanced to the second round of the playoffs. 

The Gulls announced a sponsorship agreement with the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians that will place the tribe’s logo on all home, away and specialty jerseys making Viejas the official jersey patch sponsor of the Gulls beginning with the 2026-27 season.

“We are incredibly proud of the partnership Viejas has built with the San Diego Gulls over the past two seasons, and we’re excited to see that relationship continue to grow,” Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Indians Councilman Gabriel TeSam said. “Having the Viejas tribal seal represented on the Gulls jersey is especially meaninful to us as the Gulls play in the heart of our traditional Kumeyaay homeland. Our seal tells the story of who we are. The black and white represent the rising and setting sun, the red represents the caly from which our people came and the teal represents the ocean. To see that symbol carried on the ice, throughout San Diego and beyond is a source of great pride for our tribe and a reflection of the strong relationship we’ve built with the Gulls.”

The Vijas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, of of the 13 remaining bands of the Kumeyaay Indian Nation, resides on a 1,600-acre reservation in the Viejas Valley, east of the community of Alpine in eastern San Diego County. The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians is committed to upholding a long-held tribal tradition of giving back to the community in service to others and philanthropic works.

Viejas becomes just the second official jersey partner in San Diego’s AHL history.

“The San Diego Gulls are honored to welcome the Veijas Band of Kumeyaay Indians to our jerseysm” Gullls President of Business Operations Matt Savant said. “We are proud to join two prolific San Diego logos on one sweater. The ability to represent the Viejas tribe out on the ice every night is what this partnership is all about.” 

Specialty Nights
 The Gulls’ 2026-27 promotional schedule includes 24 dates and theme nights, including nine giveaway items and seven tailgates at Pechanga Arena San Diego.

The home opener on Oct. 10 will feature a Gulls aloha shirt giveaway. Other promotional nights on the 2026-27 schedule include A Novel Night Out (Oct. 21), Faith and Family Night (Oct. 24), Halloween (Oct. 31), Dia de Muertos Celebration (Nov. 1), Military Appreciation Night (Nov. 11 and Nov. 21), Country Music Night (Nov. 20), Gulls Fight Cancer (Nov. 24), Disco Music Night (Dec. 4), Winter Wonderland & Teddy Bear Toss (Dec. 19), Pop Music Night (Jan. 8), Retro Rewind Night (Jan. 16), Women in Sports Night (Jan. 26), Yacht Rock Music Night (Jan. 29), Emo Night (Jan. 30), Star Wars Night (Feb. 13), Rinkside Rumble Wrestling Night (March 7), Reggae Music Night (March 12), Kid’s Club and Youth Sports Night (March 14) brought to you by Rady Children’s Health, First Responders Night (March 19), Native American Heritage Night (March 20) brought to you by Viejas Casino & Resort, Pride Night (April 4) and Fan Appreciation Night (April 10).

The Gulls will show their support for numerous community partners across San Diego, including Gulls Fight Cancer to promote cancer research and awareness on Nov. 24 and the annual Winter Wonderland & Teddy Bear Toss on Dec. 19, with all collected plush toys donated to local non-profits. San Diego will also host Educator Appreciation Night (Nov. 20), Healthcare Industry Night (Dec. 4) and First Responders Night (March 19) to recognize those who enrich the San Diego community.

San Diego’s promotional schedule includes the return of the Friday Night Concert Series, which will feature live music in the Pechanga Arena San Diego seating bowl. The Friday Night Concert Series begins with Country Music Night on Nov. 22, followed by Disco Music Night (Dec. 12), Pop Music Night (Jan. 8), Yacht Rock Music Night (Jan. 29), and Reggae Music Night (March 12).

San Diego will wear six specialty jerseys for a total of seven nights in 2026-27 for Dia de Muertos Celebration (Nov. 1), Military Appreciation Nights (Nov. 11 & 21), Retro Rewind Night (Jan. 16), Emo Night (Jan. 30), Star Wars Night (Feb. 13), and Native American Heritage Night (March 20).

The giveaway schedule will continue with a Gulls soccer jersey on Nov. 1, a holiday sweater koozie mitt on Dec. 19, a reversible retro bucket hat on Jan. 16, a slouch beanie on Jan. 30, a championship belt cooler bag on March 7, Gulls trading cards on March 14, a Native American hat on March 20, and a Gulls baseball jersey  on April 10. All giveaways will be limited to the first 7,000 fans in attendance.

More hockey
 San Diego County gets a second pro hockey club this season with the debut of the new Oceanside Shock of the Federal Prospects Hockey League. The Shock, represented by a jellyfish logo, competes at the A level and is joined by two expansion clubs in California: the reborn Fresno Falcons (formerly WCHL and ECHL) and Stockton Thunder (formerly ECHL).

The Shock, which will play out of Frontwave Arena, is owned by San Diego Sockers owner Phil Salvaggio, who also co-owns Frontwave Arena.

The new Oceanside team will play 28 home games, starting Oct. 10 against Fresno. Craig Carlyle wills serve as the team’s inaugural head coach.

The three California franchises are joined by the Topeka Scarecrows and Minnesota Northern Lights in the league’s Frontier Division. Other FPHL teams on the Shock’s schedule include the Motor City Rockers, Twin City Thunderbirds and Port Huron Prowlers.

The Western Conference now includes nine teams, including four from the Delta Division: Baton Rouge Kingfish, Mid-South Monarchs, Monroe Moccasins and Columbus River Dragons. Baton Rouge previously operated in the xxx while xx Moccasins??

The FPHL has undergone major expansion from primarily a Great Lakes/Mid-Atlantic regional league.

Carlyle said the team’s roster will be comprised of veteran professionals and emerging players from across North America.

The Shock faces off its inaugural season Oct. 9 in Fresno. The Shock hosts the Thunder Oct. 11 to complete a three-game weekend before engaging in a two-game weekend series against the Thunder Oct. 17 (away) and Oct. 18 (home).