Signings Bring Gulls’ Numbers to 9 : Hockey: Alan Hepple, team’s captain last season, returns for ‘92-93. Waddell also acquires wing Warren Rychel.

With training camp still a month away, the Gulls on Tuesday announced their eighth and ninth signings, wing Warren Rychel and defenseman Alan Hepple.

The Gulls’ numbers represent a contrast from 1991, when the team had only three players under contract going into training camp.

While Rychel, a rugged 25-year-old, and Hepple, the Gulls’ captain last season, are the additions, there soon might be one subtraction. The current cast includes goalie Sean Burke, but General Manager Don Waddell said he expects Burke to return to the NHL.

The New Jersey Devils, who made it to the 1988 Wales Conference finals with Burke in the nets, still own his rights but are pursuing a trade.

After his rookie season, Burke grew disenchanted with the Devils during contract negotiations and decided to skip the 1991-92 NHL season for a chance to play in the Olympics. After helping Canada to a silver medal, he signed with the Gulls.

Rychel and Hepple, meanwhile, definitely will don Gulls’ uniforms, and Waddell hopes the two will be important building blocks on a team that endeavors to eclipse its performance from 1991-92, when it lost to the Peoria Rivermen in the first round of the IHL playoffs.

Splitting the season between the IHL Kalamazoo Wings and the AHL Moncton Hawks last season, Rychel scored 29 goals and assisted on 35 others in 81 games.

“He hits hard, and he hits hard everything that moves,” Waddell said. “He has proven to be a good, solid player at our level.”

So, too, has Hepple, who last season led all Gulls defenders in scoring with 41 points (six goals and 35 assists).

Others under contract include goalie Rick Knickle, defenseman Sergei Starikov, and forwards Keith Gretzky, Larry Floyd, Peter Hankinson and John Anderson. They will be joined by up to six more signees by Sept. 15, the first day of training camp.

One player Waddell continues to pursue is Victor Kozlov, a 17-year-old Russian who finds himself being pulled in two directions. The Central Red Army team and his mother are telling him to stay home. Paul Theophanus, a New York agent, and the Gulls counter that a season in the IHL will better prepare the young phenom for the NHL.

The tug-of-war is being waged for a 6-foot-3, 191-pound left wing who some scouts contend will be among the top picks in the NHL’s next draft. He is ineligible to play in the NHL this season because he is not 18, the league’s minimum age requirement.

Waddell estimated a week ago his chances of landing Kozlov at 15%. He amended that to 25% on Tuesday as he tried to arrange a dialogue with the high-scoring forward through Theophanus, who speaks Russian.

“Every day those odds change,” Waddell aid. “But we’re really relying on his agent. There’s not much more we can do at this point. We already have our offer on the table.”

Gulls Notes

The Gulls will play two exhibitions Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 against the Phoenix Roadrunners at the Tucson Convention Center. That’s two more than the club played before either of its first two seasons, and, General Manager Don Waddell said, should help the Gulls improve on their 1-4 start of a year ago.