Preparations for the Seals 2026-27 season are officially underway and Sunday morning the team capped off a two-day training camp with an intrasquad scrimmage at Frontwave Arena. And they did so under game-like conditions, putting on a show for a select group returning and prospective season ticket members.
While official statistics weren’t kept, the Seals’ veteran laden White squad defeated the Purple by a score of 12-9 in a scrimmage that featured four 10-minute quarters. Zach Currier, Tre Leclaire, Dylan Watson and Cam Acchione each scored a pair of goals to power White, while newcomers Michael Weisshaar, Phil Caputo and Thomas Semple led the way for Purple. Weisshaar recorded a hat trick in his Seals debut while Caputo and Semple each scored twice.
Seals Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill was extremely pleased with the effort he saw from his Seals squad over the last couple days.
“It was a reflection of a lot of really good things,” said Merrill. “It was a great demonstration of the amount of talent that we've added to the team, as well as a bit of a glimpse into kind of where we left off last year with this group. It was competitive. It got a little chippy out there today, especially in the second half, which is what you like to see, right? Whether it's a veteran or a rookie trying to make the team, guys played and treated it like a real game and that bodes well for the rest of the camp and going into the season.”
Merrill also came away very impressed with the Seals new home, Frontwave Arena.
“Man, we're so lucky to be here,” said a smiling Merrill “What a special place this is going to be for us. I can't wait to fill it with our fans starting on December 19th.”
Currier, the reigning NLL Transition Player of the Year, scored both of the White side’s first-period goals and he said that although today’s scrimmage left him a bit winded, it felt great to be back out on the field with his Seals teammates.
“It felt great,” said Currier. “It's always different kind of training by yourself then getting back into the game atmospheres. You can't really replicate that on your own so the lungs are definitely feeling it, especially with the short benches there, but awesome atmosphere, great arena, and happy that we had some fans out today. We're excited to see what we can show them this year.”
Team Captain Wes Berg, whose 74 points paced the team a year ago, also came away impressed with what he saw over the last two days from the group that Merrill and his staff have assembled.
“Yeah, it's been great,” said Berg following Sunday’s scrimmage. “For me to get back and play on the right side with Tre (Leclaire) and Benny (Ben McIntosh) that was a lot of fun. And having a guy like Phil (Caputo) come in too, he’s a big body and a really, really easy guy to play with so that’s been great as well. And the young guys are fast, so it was a lot of transition work throughout training camp, but we're excited and we’re going to keep building toward the season opener.”
And while offense got most of the headlines with the teams combining for 21 goals, there were a number of great defensive plays throughout. Seals defenseman Graydon Bradley was all smiles after Sunday’s scrimmage, especially the opportunity to test out Frontwave Arena in front of the team’s fans.
“It was incredible,” beamed Bradley. “You hear about the move in the offseason and you don't really know what to expect because you can't put a picture to it, but you get here and it's like, the perfect facility for us. It's new, it's bright and the fans will be right on top of us. You can really feel the energy the arena’s going to bring. It’s going to be great.”
Bradley also said it was great to be back among his Seals’ teammates.
“It was great to get back together with the boys for a couple days this weekend,” he added. “It's a long summer when you don't get to see the fellas and now you get to travel with them every weekend until essentially end of May. And quite honestly, you miss the guys when you're not with them, but you come back and it's like no time's passed and you pick up where you left off. And it’s nice to just suit up again. We all battle out here and we have fun doing it so it's just good to be back together.”
The Seals will enjoy a few days off before reconvening for a second training camp here in San Diego next weekend that will feature three practices. Then it’s off to Toronto and Rochester on back-to-back weekends for a pair of preseason games against the Rock and Knighthawks before the team drops the ball on the regular season Nov. 28 in Toronto.
And don’t forget the Seals will open the home portion of their schedule on Saturday, Dec. 19 against Oshawa. Season tickets and tickets to the home opener against the FireWolves are on sale at sealslax.com and frontwavearena.com.
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