The Rangers are in Nashville, preparing for Thursday’s game against the Predators while short a couple of top-nine forwards.
Vitali Kravtsov is in Russia, preparing for a trade that may not happen soon and unwilling to return to North America unless the Rangers move him, according to two league sources.
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That the Rangers are here with Kravtsov, the ninth pick in 2018, may come as a surprise to those outside the organization but perhaps not as much to those on the inside, who have witnessed a stubborn young prospect and his AHL general manager-turned-NHL GM butt heads early and often since he was drafted.
According to multiple league sources, the friction between Kravtsov and Chris Drury dates back to October 2019. Kravtsov didn’t make the Rangers out of camp as a 19-year-old and didn’t enjoy his first stay in AHL Hartford. He exercised the out clause in his contract to return to the KHL, where he’d played the prior two seasons.
Sources say that when Kravtsov went to retrieve his gear and say his goodbyes to Wolfpack teammates and staff, Drury told Kravtsov that he’d “quit” on the team.
Kravtsov would ultimately return to the organization and to Hartford less than two months later after a mediocre KHL stint. He joined the Rangers in the Toronto bubble for the team’s brief 2020 playoff appearance and there was, again according to multiple sources, an incident between Kravtsov and Drury in which the young forward was dressed down by the then-assistant GM for not working hard enough. That happened on the ice in full view of teammates.
Kravtsov also missed the bus from the team hotel to the rink one day in the Toronto bubble, which led to further frustration in the organization, according to multiple sources.
Last season passed without incident, with Kravtsov playing a full season with Traktor in the KHL before joining the Rangers for the final 20 games of the truncated 2020-21 schedule. He was never able to crack the crowded top-six forward group; after the dismissals of president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton and the elevation of Drury into both of those roles, Kravtsov likely thought his time with the Rangers was at an end.
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There was a contentious exit meeting last spring between Drury and Kravtsov, with sources indicating that Drury and the Rangers were concerned about Kravtsov’s conditioning. The player was ready to head back to Russia and wasn’t willing to listen.
In the offseason, the Rangers dealt Pavel Buchnevich, a popular player not only on the team at large but with the smaller group of Russian players. Buchnevich took the most interest in trying to help Kravtsov get acclimated to life as a Ranger, according to sources, so Kravtsov took the Buchnevich trade hard.
“All of those things probably put in the kid’s head that they wanted him out,” a source said.
But Kravtsov was still a Ranger as camp opened last month. His conditioning again became an issue when he missed a week with an injury, causing him to fall behind some more seasoned pros in the push for roster spots. When word came that Kravtsov was going to Hartford, he instead headed back home to Russia, and the Rangers agreed to try to facilitate a trade through Dan Milstein, Kravtsov’s agent.
Milstein declined to comment on this piece.
There are more facts in evidence now: Ryan Strome is in COVID-19 protocol, having missed the first two games of the current road trip, and Kaapo Kakko is on injured reserve after absorbing a hit in the team’s win over the Canadiens on Saturday. That’s two top-six forwards out, which would have left ample room for Kravtsov to be in Ranger blue for an indefinite period had he simply reported to Hartford and worked hard for a week.
Sources indicated that a few NHL teams have inquired about Kravtsov — more so to get an understanding of the situation than to see what the Rangers’ price in a trade might be — and a move does not appear imminent at this point. It would be farfetched to think that all that’s gone on between player and organization would make one of the 31 other GMs leap at the chance to acquire Kravtsov and want to surrender any asset worth having to get him. Not now, anyway. And certainly the longer this stalemate goes, the more teams will forget that Kravtsov might have something to offer them.
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Kravtsov has returned to the Rangers fold before, so perhaps he will reconsider his position. That doesn’t appear likely at the moment.
Drury, just months into the top job, may have to reconsider his feelings too. Coupled with the Lias Andersson fiasco, one that played out similarly to Kravtsov’s situation and also involved Drury’s time as Hartford GM, the Rangers are about to lose a second top-10 pick from the last five years for peanuts.
The Rangers are deep enough at forward, especially among the top six, to withstand Kravtsov’s loss this season. Whether they can take the hit from seeing another disgruntled young prospect and high draft pick force his way out of the organization remains to be seen.
