Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
For weeks – really, months – the San Diego Gulls have been playing one game after another of high-pressure hockey in a bid to qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Their playoff hopes fell short, but the Gulls still have plenty to play for as their 2024-25 schedule winds down. They got a reminder of that Sunday night when they visited the Coachella Valley Firebirds, a game that featured several significant moments for the team.
Goaltender Calle Clang made his first start in two months after returning from injury. Roland McKeown forced overtime in the final minute of regulation before Nico Myatovic’s game-winner completed San Diego’s 4-3 comeback victory.
And then there was defenseman Will Francis taking the ice for the Gulls in his professional hockey debut. Like so many players making the jump to the AHL late in the season, it was a chance to make an impression, get a sense of the pro game and take something positive into the summer.
But for Francis, a sixth-round pick by Anaheim in the 2019 NHL Draft, just reaching this point marked an important step on an even longer journey, and not only in terms of years. In March of 2020, Francis was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Francis, then just 19, sat out the entire 2020-21 season. His 2021-22 freshman season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth was limited to five games.
He finished treatment and played a full season in 2022-23, but he suffered a relapse in August 2023 and he redshirted the 2023-24 season. Francis underwent a bone marrow transplant last April, but had another relapse in the fall. Following a third round of chemotherapy, he returned to the lineup on Mar. 8 and played two games before the Bulldogs’ season ended.
All told, Francis took to the ice for just 37 games over four years at UMD.
Both the Ducks and Gulls will miss the postseason this spring, and there are impressions to be made as the organization prepares to move into the offseason. Late-season games, especially for a team that will not reach the Calder Cup Playoffs, often feature a succession of new faces coming in from leagues around the world. There are systems to learn, a much higher pace to handle, and a dressing room full of brand-new teammates.
It’s also a time to begin new relationships and bonds to carry into next season. At 24 years old, Francis has no guarantees past his current tryout deal with San Diego. Leukemia has limited his ice time and development these past five years, though one could certainly say that he has been more than sufficiently tested both mentally and emotionally.
What the San Diego roster looks like next October is still largely to be determined. Francis has an opportunity to show what he could bring to the lineup come next season. It’s also a chance for his teammates to see the effort and perseverance that he has carried with him from that draft day in Vancouver back in 2019 to Sunday’s pro debut.
“We’re happy to host his first pro game,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane told reporters on Sunday. “Not only a person like that, but a hockey player like that – You’re happy to have people like that around your organization.”
With all of those setbacks since that first diagnosis, Francis could have had enough. Pursuing a career in college hockey, to say nothing of pro hockey, comes with more than enough inherent barriers even before a serious health condition is added to that equation. That goes double and triple with each successive setback and relapse. A sense of “here we go again” would be understandable for anyone. But those setbacks also had a reinforcing effect for Francis as one year stretched into the next. He acknowledged that this most recent relapse might have caused him to think that a hockey career might not be possible. Instead, it sealed a realization for him.
“I went on and skated for the first time after that and realized that this is what I love to do,” Francis said. “I knew I was going to do whatever it takes to get back to doing the things that I love to do.”
The pay-off came for Francis on Sunday evening at Acrisure Arena. He had his father in the arena for his debut and made sure to credit the extensive support network that his family, friends, girlfriend, her family, teammates, coaches and staff have all given him through the years.
Said Francis, “It felt unbelievable.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
