For the third time in four seasons, the San Diego Gulls have a new head coach.
This one is more than a little familiar with the American Hockey League.
In fact, no coach is more experienced in the AHL than Roy Sommer, named Tuesday to lead the NHL Anaheim Ducks’ top minor league .
Sommer, 65, is the league’s all-time leader in wins (808) and games coached (1,736). He spent the last 26 seasons as a coach in the San Jose Sharks organization before the team demoted him this spring.
“He’s got a long history of success at the American League level with 1,700 games coached with 808 victories,” Ducks Assistant General Manager and Gulls GM Rob DiMaio said at a news conference. “We couldn’t have a better coach to work with our young players, develop talent and have success as an organization. So, I’m very appreciative of Roy accepting the position with us here in San Diego.”
The Sharks announced in May that Sommer would move into a senior advisory role after the Barracuda finished the season 20-42-6, including 0-13-2 at the end of the season. The team was forced to use 53 different players during the season.
In San Diego, Sommer replaces Joel Bouchard, who was fired in May, just 10 months after he replaced Kevin Dineen, who coached the team for only two seasons, both of which were cut short by COVID-19.
Bouchard was 28-33-4-3 in his one season with the Gulls, finishing seventh in the nine-team AHL Pacific Division, then getting swept in a two-game playoff series by the Ontario Reign.
Dineen and Bouchard both were hired by Bob Murray, who resigned as Ducks executive vice president and general manager in November after an investigation into his professional conduct. Pat Verbeek, hired to replace Murray in February, made the decision to replace Bouchard.
“Being in San Diego,” Sommer said, “it’s a team that’s got a winning tradition and I look forward to the challenge of meeting that winning tradition and you know, let’s put things right here — I’m not a spring chicken. I don’t have a lot of years left in me in coaching, but I sure would like to win a Calder Cup here.
” … You know, it’s one of those places; it probably has the best fan base in the American Hockey League. I’ve been on the East Coast, I’ve coached in the middle, in Kentucky, I was in Worchester, I was in Cleveland and I think you guys and Hershey are right up there with the best fan base in the league.”
