The Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League will host San Diego HockeyFest on Feb. 22 at the Valley View Casino Center to celebrate the return of professional hockey to the San Diego region.
The Ducks are one of five NHL franchises that have relocated their AAA development clubs to the West Coast to form a new Pacific Division in the American Hockey League.
The Ducks join the Los Angeles Kings (Ontario), San Jose Sharks (San Jose), Edmonton Oilers (Bakersfield) and Calgary Flames (Stockton) to plant AHL franchises in California.
The new AHL Pacific Division, which is envisioned to facilitate short-distance call-ups to the parent western NHL clubs, will begin play in October when the puck drops on the 2015-16 season.
The San Diego franchise, which will be relocated from Norfolk, Va., will serve as the Ducks’ top minor league affiliate. Games will be played at the Valley View Casino Center, which first opened in 1966 to much fanfare with the original San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League.
“All our best your players will be playing here (in San Diego),” Ducks General Manager Bob Murray said during a media luncheon hosted last Friday at the Valley View Casino Center by the NHL club to make the formal announcement that pro hockey was returning to the region.
The last minor-pro team to play here was the San Diego Gulls of the ECHL. The Gulls suspended operations following the 2005-06 season after 11 seasons of operations that made them the longest-tenured franchise in the city’s long hockey history that first began with the San Diego Skyhawks of the Pacific Coast Hockey League in 1944-45.
The ECHL Gulls had their genesis in the West Coast Hockey League in 1995. The Gulls were members of the WCHL for eight seasons, winning a total of five Taylor Cup championships, including the league’s first three championship titles, while making six trips to the Taylor Cup Finals overall.
The announcement has obviously sent a buzz through the local hockey community.
“I’m definitely going to be at the HockeyFest and I’m definitely buying tickets to the first game,” said Darius Newhall, an Eastlake High School graduate who starred between the pipes for the school’s roller hockey team and later played two years for San Diego State University’s ice hockey team. “Regardless of who they are affiliated with, I’m just glad pro hockey is back in San Diego after so many years without a pro team. It will be awesome to see players who will someday play in the NHL.”
Otay Ranch High School senior Devyn Taras, another inline and ice hockey crossover player, was equally enthusiastic about the news.
“It think it’s going to be great, I’m super stoked,” said Taras, who leads the Mustangs in scoring and also plays ice hockey for the San Diego Junior Gulls 18U-AAA club team. “Hockey is growing as a spectator sport, I think it will be great for everybody.”
The free family-friendly HockeyFest, which will run from noon to 3 p.m., will include the unveiling of the AHL club’s name and logo along with a full “Hockey Spot” experience that takes place prior to Ducks Sunday home games at the Honda Center. The “Hockey Spot” includes street hockey, a Ducks Jump Castle (bounce house), photo booth and hardest shot challenge.
HockeyFest will also feature autograph sessions by local hockey legends, appearances by the Ducks street team and Power Players, live music from San Diego-based bands, hot dogs and soda and a T-shirt (for the first 1,000 fans) with the club’s name and logo — all complimentary.
Additional food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Southwest High School coach Jerry Nestlerode, who serves as the Sweetwater district’s liaison for the CIF-Metro Conference, hopes the new pro team will become involved with the conference in some support/sponsorship capacity.
That shouldn’t be a problem. The new AHL team has stated it wants to spread its wings in its new surroundings.
“We want to embrace the entire youth hockey community, both inline hockey and ice hockey,” said Ari Segal, who has been named the San Diego AHL team’s director of business operations. “We’re committed to growth.”
There appears to be no shortage of fans who want to embrace San Diego’s newest pro hockey team. The new team has already received 1,200 deposits on season tickets in just its first week of business.
Eastlake High School roller hockey coach Ron Cole wants to buy season tickets, specifically the seats in which he sat as a youngster with his grandmother while cheering on the Gulls of the WHL (1966-74).
Cole is an unlikely San Diego ice hockey product. His father, who hailed from Buffalo, got him involved in youth hockey; Cole also attended pro hockey games with his grandparents.
“Between playing ice hockey and going to the Gulls games when I was a kid, I thought everyone in San Diego played ice hockey,” he said, smiling.
Cole began playing in the San Diego Amateur Hockey Association in 1966 at age 6. “I don’t think they had invented roller hockey then,” he quipped.
Cole played youth ice hockey through the 1970s, winning awards and patches as a standout goaltender, and continues to play both ice and inline hockey in adult leagues.
He has coached in the CIF-Metro Conference for 14 years, including 10 years at Mar Vista High School. This is his fourth year at Eastlake High School. The Titans have won back-to-back Mesa League championships under his guidance and appear to be working on another with a 4-0 record to start league play.
Eastlake defeated Bonita Vista, 19-0, on Wednesday to improve to 14-1 on the season. The Titans edged Scripps Ranch, 11-10, in a key non-league game Tuesday at the Escondido Sports Center that could determine seeding for the upcoming Kiwanis Cup championship playoffs.
Cole was a fan of the original Gulls of the WHL. “My grandparents both had season tickets but my grandfather would stay home, so I could go to games with my grandmother,” Cole said.
The younger Cole vividly remembers meeting Willie O’Ree, Mr. San Diego Hockey, the Gulls’ all-time fan favorite and first player to break the color barrier in the NHL, and being interviewed by the late Ron Oakes, the Gulls’ radio announcer, after winning an award.
“I was 8 years old and my eyes were as big as saucers when I was being interviewed by Ron Oakes, who was the voice of the Gulls,” Cole recalled with a gleam in his eye.
Mar Vista High School grad Mark Rodriguez was a stickboy for the most recent team to use the Gulls nickname. He played under Cole at MVHS, winning three league titles during his three-year career as a Mariner.
He, too, is excited about pro hockey’s return.
“I think the timing is perfect,” said Rodriguez, who currently officiates CIF-Metro Conference high school roller hockey games at the Castle Park High School rink. “The economy is improving. Hockey is coming back to San Diego at the right time, so it can grow. Hopefully, they will do some more public relations in the South Bay.”
Bonita Vista High School coach Keith Quigley concurs with much of what Rodriguez and Cole had to say about the return of pro hockey to the region.
“I’m extremely excited that pro hockey is back in San Diego,” the longtime Barons coach said. “I think it’s going to be important for more growth in the game. You can get kids started playing at younger ages, so they already have some experience by the time they get to high school.
“It’s a great learning experience watching a hockey game in person. There are so many things you can pick up watching a game live rather than on TV. It’s going to be great for the hockey community in San Diego.”
The original Gulls never made it to the NHL, nor did they ever finish higher than third place in the WHL standings or win a playoff series, but they remain the city’s beloved hockey team.
The Gulls’ name will go far in fan identification should the new AHL team manage to acquire it.
The San Diego Mariners of the upstart World Hockey Association brought a higher level of play to town from 1974-77 but they could never generate the same love affair among fans as did the original Gulls.
Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull paid visits to the then San Diego Sports Arena but the WHA could never gained a foothold here and was followed by two teams in the ill-fated Pacific Hockey League before pro hockey disappeared completely for 11 seasons.
The Gulls of the International Hockey League rekindled the flames from 1990-95, setting a pro hockey record for most points (132) in one season in 1992-93 when they advanced to the Turner Cup Finals. But the AAA-level IHL soon found itself headed out of town to be replaced by the Gulls of the AA-level WCHL.
The new AHL team, backed by the NHL parent club, is hoping for better fortunes.
“I hope it stays for many years here,” Cole said. “Youth hockey players are the ones who are going to benefit. It’s going to give them something to shoot for and strive for.”
For more information, visit the website at www.sandiegoahl.com.
Titanic win
Eastlake opened up an early 5-0 lead on Scripps Ranch, then held off the hard-charging Falcons. “We had the lead for the first two periods, then they scored some goals and it was a shootout in the third period,” Cole said. “It was fun for the fans to watch, but I was biting my nails.”
