Gulls’ Top Scorers Might Skip the...

Entering the fifth week of the 1991-92 International Hockey League season, the Gulls had their first league leader in goals and two of the IHL’s top four scorers.

However, the amount of time either Dmitri Kvartalnov or Len Hachborn would remain Gulls was a point of concern Monday.

Kvartalnov, 25, the Soviet free agent who speaks no English, communicated clearly with his stick. He scored four goals to lead the third-place Gulls to a 6-5 victory at Salt Lake Saturday. That made him the first player in franchise history to score four times in a game or hold the IHL lead in goals. In 11 games, he has 13 goals and the league’s second best plus-minus figure (plus 11).

Hachborn, 30, a center who plays on Kvartalnov’s line, is third in the league in points with 20. Kvartalnov is fourth with 19. Hachborn entered Monday’s game threatening to tie Derek Mayer’s club-record 14-game scoring streak.

But Don Waddell, the Gulls vice president/general manager and coach, said he could lose Hachborn to a European league when his 25-game contract expires (after a game against Muskegon on Nov. 30). He also is uncertain about the NHL’s rights to Kvartalnov, whose five multiple-goal games have prompted phone calls from the New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars.

“(Kvartalnov) is under contract for the year, but after 40 games (Jan. 10) there’s a clause to renegotiate,” Waddell said. “There is an NHL rule that you cannot steal players from the Soviet Union. There’s an agreement that he’s got to be drafted first. Now the sidebar is he’s now playing in the IHL. I don’t know if that makes him eligible (for the NHL as a free agent).”

Waddell said the Gulls would not offer Hachborn anything in excess five digits, despite the fact Hachborn already has rejected offers of $80,000 to $100,000 plus incentives to go to Europe.

“He’d rather stay here,” said Waddell of Hachborn, a former NHL player hoping to return there via the expansion draft. “But his agent is in Europe right now looking for the right opportunity. I’m trying to sign him as we speak, but he holds the trump card.”

Hachborn has five goals and 15 assists and has been one of the keys to Kvartalnov’s success. Kvartalnov was an unknown quantity who played at Khimik Voskresenska of the Soviet Elite League last year. It was New York agent Paul Theofanus who convinced Waddell to sign him.

Kvartalnov, who has four two-goal games, had two game-winning scores plus a game-winning assist during the three-game winning streak the Gulls carried into Monday’s game with the Golden Eagles.

Gulls Notes

The Gulls released defenseman Marc Laniel and are awaiting word on the status of goalie Greg Millen, who started Monday. The Rangers have been attempting to make a trade that would create a roster opening for Millen, 34, a 14-year NHL veteran. Millen said he did not expect to be with the Gulls Thursday for their first of two games against the Phoenix Roadrunners at the San Diego Sports Arena.