When the Ducks returned defenseman Shea Theodore to their new American Hockey League team in San Diego last month, they made an Amtrak reservation for him and pointed him toward the train station across Katella Avenue from the Honda Center.

Safe travels, kid.

“I’d never been on a train before,” the 20-year-old Theodore said, smiling.

When the Kings had several days between games in their new AHL team’s schedule, director of player development Nelson Emerson jumped in his car and drove from the team’s El Segundo training facility to the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario to help tutor the Reign’s players.

Even the worst rush-hour Southern California freeway traffic beats a flight to Manchester, N.H.

Or Norfolk, Va.

“It’s unfortunate the first time we called somebody up, we were in Pittsburgh when we called up (left wing) Michael Mersch,” said Jack Ferreira, special assistant to Kings general manager Dean Lombardi. “But it’s been great. It’s really been good.

“When we wanted to get (defenseman) Derek Forbort a couple of games, boom, come right out here from El Segundo and go. Our development people are out here three or four days a month. They just drive out and work with the kids. It’s really worked out.”

The westward migration of the AHL, hockey’s top minor league, has been every bit the rousing success the Ducks, Kings, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks hoped it would be. Above all, the NHL teams and their AHL clubs are better connected than in the past.

“It’s been excellent,” Ducks general manager Bob Murray said. “We’ve had good crowds, the people are excited and it’s a decent hockey team, so that part of it. As far as our organization is concerned, it’s working well. The teams are competitive. I’ve seen everybody. It’s pretty good so far.”

California dreaming

The Ducks are now entrenched in San Diego after many seasons in Norfolk, a six-hour flight from Orange County with a connection. The Kings moved from Manchester to Ontario. The Flames went from Glens Falls, N.Y., to Stockton. The Oilers shifted from Oklahoma City to Bakersfield.

Perhaps shrewdest of all, the Sharks swapped far-flung Worcester, Mass., for San Jose’s SAP Center, where players walk from one dressing room to another depending on whether they’ve been recalled to the NHL club or reassigned to the AHL one.

“The travel is a little difficult, for us at least,” Gulls right wing Tim Jackman said. “The closest bus trip is Ontario, but the other places we’ve played, Bakersfield and San Jose, we’ve had some long bus trips. But it’s good bonding. We’ve watched some movies and there’s been some laughs.”

Fan support has been strong since the puck dropped on the AHL’s new Pacific Division, which also includes two teams in Texas, the Dallas Stars’ affiliate in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park and the Colorado Avalanche’s San Antonio Rampage.

The Gulls are averaging 8,398 fans in 11 home games, second behind Hershey’s AHL-leading 9,151 after 15 games. The Reign are averaging 7,895 in 12 games, fourth in the league and well above the AHL’s overall average of 5,437 per game through Sunday.

Average attendance last season in Norfolk was 4,752. In Manchester, it was 5,621.

“Coming into Southern California, I wasn’t sure what this was going to be,” Gulls coach Dallas Eakins said. “I’m amazed at the support here in San Diego, and the other cities we’re going into are being supported quite well, too. I think it’s been a great first step for the American Hockey League.”

Selling the game

One way to attract new fans in new markets are promotions such as the Teddy Bear tosses the Gulls and Reign held Friday in San Diego and Saturday in Ontario. When the home team scored its first goal, fans threw their teddy bears onto the ice to be collected for local charities.

The Gulls drew a boisterous crowd of 9,421 to the Valley View Casino Center and more than 15,000 bears hit the ice when it appeared the home team scored in the final seconds of the first period of Friday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the San Jose Barracuda.

A video review concluded the goal came after the horn and did not count.

The bears flew all the same, covering the ice.

Gulls players joined in a clean-up effort that lasted a solid 15 minutes after the period.

One night later in Ontario, a noisy crowd of 8,535 at Citizens Business Bank Arena tossed more than 6,000 bears onto the ice after Reign right wing Justin Auger scored a first-period goal in an eventual 3-2 shootout loss to the Gulls.

The referees sent the Reign and the Gulls to their dressing rooms with 3:32 left in the first period, which was then added to the start of the second, while the bears were collected and later delivered to Toys for Tots, a charity that’s especially busy during the holiday season.

“You’ve got five teams that have moved into four markets; San Jose is obviously in San Jose,” said Ari Segal, the Gulls’ president of business operations. “We’ve all of a sudden taken a huge state and tripled the amount of high-level hockey that’s available, and we’ve offered it at lower price points.

“The teams we’re partners with in this endeavor, they’re also achieving success, and that’s important because if we were having success by ourselves, who would we play, right? As it relates to us, things are going really, really well. We’re pleasantly surprised, but not shocked.

“We really believed San Diego was a great hockey market.”

Taking it outside

The Stockton Heat were set to play host to the Bakersfield Condors in an outdoor game Friday night at Raley Field, a Triple-A baseball stadium in Sacramento, but a heavy rainstorm forced the contest to be postponed by one night because of poor ice conditions.

A crowd of 9,357 returned Saturday to watch the Heat’s 3-2 victory over the Condors in the first of what could be more outdoor AHL games in California. Game-time temperature was 52 degrees, dropping into the 40s later in the evening.

“I won’t lie to you, the guys were looking at each other, wondering how the ice was going to be,” said Bakersfield goaltender Ben Scrivens, a former Kings backup to Jonathan Quick. “But the ice was actually really good. It was fantastic. It was hard. It didn’t affect the game at all.

“Hopefully, everyone enjoyed it. I think it definitely hurt having the game postponed. You had people taking time off work and making plans to watch it on a Friday night. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and we had to bump it to the next night.

“We played the game and tried to give them as good a show as we could.”

Growing the game

Scrivens was born in Spruce Grove, Alberta, not far from Edmonton and as close to a traditional hockey hotbed as it gets. The same goes for Theodore, the Ducks’ top prospect, who was born in Langley, British Columbia, a Vancouver suburb.

More and more, top players are coming from non-traditional markets, however.

Reign center Nic Dowd learned the game while growing up in Huntsville, Ala., for instance.

“I think it would be a testament to the hockey down there,” Dowd said of some day making his NHL debut with the Kings. “A lot of people don’t know it, but the youth organizations down there are pretty great. They help the young kids flourish and find their passion for the game.”

Expanding hockey’s footprint in California, with the addition of five AHL teams, was one more giant step in growing the game far beyond its traditional snowy roots. So far, everything seems to be working exactly as planned.

“It definitely helps having the success the Kings have had,” Scrivens said. “The Ducks won a Cup here as well. Feeding off Wayne Gretzky when he got traded here and the rush he created, those young players are now playing in the NHL and they have their own fan bases from their hometowns.

“There’s such a big population here in Southern California. It’s an untapped market still for player development. There are as many people in California as there are in all of Canada. The more you invest in the future, the more you’re going to see younger Californians in the leagues.”

American Hockey League

Founded: 1936

New California teams (NHL affiliates): Bakersfield Condors (Oilers), Ontario Reign (Kings), San Diego Gulls (Ducks), San Jose Barracuda (Sharks), Stockton Heat (Flames).

Website: www.theahl.com

Ontario Reign

Arena: Citizens Business Bank Arena, 4000 East Ontario Center Parkway, Ontario

Coach: Mike Stothers

Top prospect: Left wing Adrian Kempe

Tickets: www.ontarioreign.com/tickets

San Diego Gulls

Arena: Valley View Casino Center, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego

Coach: Dallas Eakins

Top prospect: Defenseman Shea Theodore

Tickets: www.sandiegogulls.com