Gulls training camp opened this week with 21 players, following Wednesday’s practice now at 27 players, from the Anaheim Ducks’ organization coming down to San Diego to participate in the Gulls’ training camp before the NHL season opens Tuesday, October 10 and the AHL season opens Friday, October 13.
For some players it’s just another season, working on their development and looking for an NHL call-up, and, for others, it’s the highest level of hockey they’ve played so far and looking forward to the experience a new level of hockey brings.
Veterans like Trevor Carrick, Glenn Gawdin, Scott Harrington, and Jacob Perreault offer plenty of AHL experience, and some NHL experience, too, for a training camp that consists of 11 out of 27 players who have never played an AHL game and 15 players with less than 30 appearances in the AHL.
Carrick has the most experience of any player on the roster with 555 career AHL appearances across nine seasons. Harrington has by far the most NHL experience with 255 games played in his 10-year NHL career. He also has 198 career appearances at the AHL level.
Gawdin has 258 career games in the AHL and 12 in the NHL while Perreault and Brayden Tracey have the most experience in San Diego with 130 and 129 career appearances with the Gulls, respectively.
Defenseman Drew Helleson may not have the most experience on the camp roster (82 games in the AHL), but he is one of eight players on the Gulls’ training camp roster with NHL experience, even if it’s only three games. Helleson scored his first goal in his second career game last year, something only three other players in camp can say they’ve done.
“I think it’s just a lot of confidence going out there and knowing you can play with those guys,” Helleson said about his experience in Anaheim last season. “You know, it’s a dream and once you get up there it’s a little nerve-wracking but once you settle in it’s just hockey again and I think just bringing that experience down here and growing my game down here and hoping to be up there at some point.”
The rookies in camp look up to that group of players and see them as role models and leaders on the team.
“They’ve just been great,” Sasha Pastujov said. “Maybe not as much verbal but as much as just following their lead, their actions, leading by example. You know, being early every meeting, being on the ice early, off the ice late.”
Pastujov was one of many players who got his first taste of getting to face NHL level opposition in this year’s Ducks preseason camp before being assigned to San Diego.
“It was awesome. It was cool to get that taste of preseason hockey, put on that Ducks jersey, it was pretty cool and, you know, it just makes you even more motivated to get back with the big club,” Pastujov said.
Training camp is a vital part of the pre-season that allows players to get to know one another, often for the first time, before they take the ice in an actual game as part of a team. While there are some returning players, the majority have not played with each other before or put on the Gulls sweater.
“You need everyone to win,” Drew Helleson said. “So it’s important now to take those steps and learn, you know, a little bit about everyone and see who they are and where they came from comes a long way.”
Training camp consists of full-team practices at Poway ICE from 10 a.m.-noon, which is open to the public, followed by an hour of closed development work with a smaller group of select players each practice.
The Ducks haven’t finished their training camp yet with 34 players remaining on their training camp roster, which they’ll have to narrow down to 23 before their season opener on Tuesday, October 10, at which point the Gulls’ training camp will wrap up and they’ll have their roster set for the start of their season next week.
Thursday was an off day for the team before they return to the ice Friday and Saturday ahead of their preseason game with the Ontario Reign on Sunday.