Offseason Signings and Departures: Covid Edition

Brendan Guhle (4) skates in action against the Bakersfield Condors. Credit San Diego Gulls.

Update: Free Agency has officially started in earnest and I have given this post a long-overdue update including a look of what lines might look like for the Gulls.

Well another season has unfortunately ended. Only this time – painfully before its final conclusion and due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control. I didn’t have the heart to do a postmortem or end-of-season grades for this past year because it didn’t seem right. The Gulls were on the cusp of heading on a potentially long run into the Calder Cup playoffs with all of the stars aligning at just the right time before a worldwide pandemic caused the premature cancellation of the 2019-2020 season.

But now that the season IS over officially – players on expiring contracts are starting to pursue new deals. It is hard to forget the Game Of Thrones-esque departures of some longtime fan favorites during the summer of last year so here is hoping Gulls fans do not have to endure anything close to that this time around.

First off – here is the Gulls roster and their contract status to give you an idea of who is who and where they sit in terms of will they or wont they be a Gull next season.

Forwards

No.	Name	Position	Status	On Covid-Loan	20-21 Team
7	Chase De Leo	C	1 Year Ext – 2 way Deal	No	San Diego Gulls
8	Alex Dostie	C	RFA	No
11	Kyle Criscuolo	C	Signed with Detroit		Grand Rapids Griffins
12	Corey Tropp	RW	UFA	No
14	Antoine Morand	C	2 More Years	No	San Diego Gulls
17	Alex Broadhurst	C	Signed with HIFK, Liiga		HIFK
19	Blake Pietila	LW	UFA	No
20	Isac Lundestrom	C	1 More Year	Yes – Timrå IK (Allsv)	San Diego Gulls
21	Brent Gates Jr	C	Signed with Laval Rocket
22	Andrew Poturalski	RW	1 Year Ext – 2 way Deal	No	San Diego Gulls
23	Chris Mueller	C	UFA	No
25	Sam Carrick	C	Re-Signed 1 Year		San Diego Gulls
26	Luke Gazdic	LW	UFA	No
28	Justin Kloos	C	Signed with Torpedo of the KHL		Topedo, KHL
29	Max Comtois	LW	1 More Year	No	Anaheim Ducks
32	Jack Kopacka	LW	1 More Year	No	San Diego Gulls
44	Kiefer Sherwood	RW	Signed with Colorado

21	Trevor Zegras	C	3 More Years	No	San Diego Gulls
50	BO Groulx	C	3 More Years	No	San Diego Gulls
95	Vinni Lettieri	C	1 Year – 2 way Deal	No	San Diego Gulls
77	Max Golod	LW	3 Year ELC	No	San Diego Gulls

Defensemen

No.	Name	Position	Signed Through	On Covid Loan	20-21 Team
2	Jani Hakanpaa	RD	Re-Signed 1 Year	No	San Diego Gulls
3	Chris Wideman	RD	Signed with Torpedo of the KHL		Torpedo, KHL
4	Brendan Guhle	LD	Re-Signed 2 Years	No	San Diego Gulls
5	Simon Benoit	LD	2 More Years	No	San Diego Gulls
6	Josh Mahura	LD	1 More Year	No	San Diego Gulls
15	Scott Moldenhauer	RD	UFA	No
36	Hunter Drew	RD	3 More Years	Yes – HC Banska (Slovakia)	San Diego Gulls
38	Joel Persson	RD	Signed with Vaxjo Lakers of the SHL		Vaxjo, SHL
40	Keegan Kanzig	LD	UFA	No

20	Axel Andersson	RD	3 More Years	Yes – Sodertalje SK (Allsv)	San Diego Gulls
3	Andy Welinski	RD	1 Year – One Way Deal	No	San Diego Gulls

Goaltenders

No.	Name	Position	Signed Through	On Covid Loan	20-21 Team
31	Olle Eriksson Ek	G	2 More Years	No	San Diego Gulls
35	Kevin Boyle	G	Signed with Detroit		Grand Rapids Griffins
41	Anthony Stolarz	G	1 More Year	No	Anaheim Ducks
1	Roman Durny	G	2 More Years	Yes – HC Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)	Tulsa Oilers
1	Lukas Dostal	G	3 More Years	Yes – Ilves (Liiga)	San Diego Gulls

If you have a question or unsure about what the various Free Agency statuses in the above tables mean, feel free to check out my Hockey 101 guide here.

Secondly, here is a time line of signings and departures as they have happened.

May 6th: Anaheim signs Christian Djoos and Jani Hakanpaa to one year extensions.

May 10th: Anaheim signs Brendan Guhle and Sam Carrick to two year and one year deals respectively.

June 1st: Chris Wideman signs a one-year deal with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL.

June 8th: Justin Kloos joins Wideman and also signs a one year deal with Torpedo.

June 6th: Joel Persson signs a three year deal with Vaxjo Lakers of the SHL.

June 28th: Alex Broadhurst signs with HIFK of the Finnish Liiga.

October 1st: Brent Gates Jr signs one year two-way deal with the Laval Rocket.

October 8th: Chase De Leo re-ups on a one year two-way deal with Anaheim. Gets a raise on the AHL side of it.

October 9th: Detroit signs Kyle Criscuolo and Kevin Boyle to one year deals.

October 9th: Colorado signs Keifer Sherwood to a one year deal.

October 9th: Poturalski signs a one year extension – two way deal.

October 10th: Anaheim brings back Andy Welinski on a one year – one way deal and inks Hartfords Vinni Lettieri to a one year – two way deal. Lettieri has University of Minnesota connections and lead the Wolfpack in scoring last year with 47 points in 61 games.

October 11th: Anaheim signs undrafted free-agent Maxim Golod to a three year entry level deal. The 20 year old Left Winger played on the same Erie Otters as most recent sixth overall Jamie Drysdale.

Lines

Here is how lines currently look heading into the new season (if or when it eventually happens). Blue indicates the player is under contract. Players with a question mark and not in blue – are unsigned so not confirmed. Players with a question mark – in blue, I am unsure if they are coming over from Europe or if they will be assigned to the Gulls.

.	Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
L1	Comtois	Zegras ?	Kindopp
L2	Kopacka	Lundestrom	Poturalski
L3	Morand	Carrick	Lettieri
L4	Groulx	De Leo	Golod
Spares:Pietila ?, Mueller ?, Dostie ?, Tropp, Gazdic