On January 29, 2015, the Anaheim Ducks announced that they would purchase their American Hockey League the Norfolk Admirals, and would be moving the team to San Diego as one of five charter members of the AHL's new Pacific Division.

[4] The San Diego Gulls played their first home game on October 10, 2015, against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

[10][11] Matt McIlvane was hired as the new coach for the 2023–24 season, specifically due to his experience of working with younger players.

[11] The Gulls consider the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings' AHL affiliate, to be their chief rivals and advertise games as "Rivalry Night".

Both Anaheim and Los Angeles share an intense rivalry dubbed the Freeway Faceoff.

[14] San Diego then defeated the Reign in the 2017 Calder Cup playoffs 3-games-to-2 in the division semifinals.

That 2015–16 season saw Bakersfield and San Diego have multiple fights and line brawls broke out during a game played at Mechanics Bank Arena.

Notably, on May 3, 2019, in the Pacific Division Finals of the 2019 Calder Cup playoffs, the Gulls defeated the Condors 3–2 in quadruple overtime for the 1–0 series lead.