HOCKEY

Gulls Coach Don Waddell said he will decide this week whether to sign two highly touted Soviet players to join his International Hockey League team. The Gulls now have two. One player is left wing Andrei Kvartalnov, older brother of Gull Dmitri Kvartalnov, the IHL leader in goals (25) and points (47).

“We’ve got 22 guys, I’ve got to make some cuts right now and we’ve been playing pretty well,� said Waddell, also the club’s vice president/general manager. “But in January and February it’s going to be tough. We have a lot of games. We need more size up front, and the guys I have now don’t give me that. They don’t give me the rugged style.�

Waddell said Andrei Kvartalnov, 28, a member of the Soviet Olympic team, was planning to defect to San Diego during the team’s current tour of the U.S. But Soviet Federation officials got word and took him off the traveling roster. Waddell has been told by Paul Theofanus, the agent that brought him Dmitri Kvartalnov and Sergei Starikov, that it will cost him 100,000 rubles ($15,000) to fly the elder Kvartalnov here.

“It cost me $28,000 to get Dmitri out of there,� said Waddell, who knows little about the other player, a defenseman, including his first name. “But it’s in my hands. It’s just a question of how many Russians I want on the team.�