10/29/21 | Gerard Gallant was on The Michael Kay Show on Thursday and said of Kravtsov, “when he was assigned he never showed up to Hartford and that is the last…I talked to him on the phone briefly and just said ‘Kravy, we’d love to have you back’ and that was about it and I never heard nothing since then.” (ESPN NY 98.7, YES)
When asked if he saw that coming from Kravtsov, Gallant said “No, that is not part of my job. I talk with management every day and when we made that decision, I was part of the decision, but I wasn’t part of sending him down when he went down we expected him to go and play hard and get the recall sooner than later and all the sudden I was told that he was going back to Russia.” (ESPN NY 98.7, YES)
With the injuries wouldn’t he have been called up by now, “Again, I don’t know, but more than likely.”
10/23/21 | Jeff Marek said on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday that the Rangers are looking for “a top prospect” in exchange for Vitali Kravtsov.
Marek said that Chris Drury is not “budging from that right now.” (Sportsnet)
10/22/21 | On the NHL Network earlier today, Elliotte Friedman spoke about Vitali Kravtsov and said “I think he will be moved eventually, but I think it’s going to be at the Rangers pace.”
He continued, “you guys know Chris Drury, he’s calm, he doesn’t throw temper tantrums, but once he makes a decision he sticks with that decision. The Rangers have reached out to him and asked him to come back, Gerard Gallant did, they’d like him to go to Hartford, get ready and then come back. Kravtsov is in Russia, he doesn’t want to stay in Russia, he wants to go back to the NHL, but I think he has decided that, barring a change in opinion, and remember, Jonathan Drouin said he’d never go back to Tampa and he went back to Tampa before he was traded to Montreal, but Kravtsov at this time would like to start somewhere else.”
Friedman added, “I do think there is interest, but the tough thing about this kind of situation, Lias Andersson went through it, Jesse Puljujarvi went through it and Edmonton decided to keep him, there becomes a battle between what the team that has him thinks he’s worth and what another team thinks he is worth. The Rangers still look at him as a first round pick three years ago and can still blossom and other teams try to steal him with ‘you were going to send him to the AHL, he’d make your roster this year and we think he is worth a little less. It becomes a battle over that and I think that is where we are right now. The last I heard this week was that Kravtsov had preferred to be traded elsewhere and we will see if he changes his mind.”
On the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Jeff Marek said when Drury was in charge of the Wolf Pack players like Ty Ronning, Brandon Halverson, Sean Day and Ryan Gropp were players that asked for a trade and Drury’s response was “kick rocks, I’m not gonna deal you’ and was comfortable to wait it out and not just make a knee-jerk decision or knee-jerk trade based on this player wants out. Forget it, we are making a trade on my timeline if we are making one at all. That is a lot different than dealing with a top-10 pick and someone with the skill set of Vitali Kravtsov, but when you look at the situation and dynamic between Chris Drury, who is someone who believes in fairness, but also doesn’t have a lot of time for prolonged negotiations, who is in some ways very steadfast in what he believes.”
Friedman added, “Chris Drury has always been calm, but firm. The way you describe him, in terms of dealing with things in the AHL, is the way I’ve always understood him. He’s not going to get emotional, at least not publicly, but he’s going to make a decision and stand by his decision no matter what the popularity of that move is or is not.” (32 Thoughts)
Friedman continued, “I do think that this is going to end up in a trade, however, we are in that sort of zone of what you are vs what you could be. Look what the Rangers did with Lias Andersson, there were conversations about that, what you are vs what you could be, they end up trading him for a second rounder.” (32 Thoughts)
Adam Rotter: Some people around the league think that this will linger for another month or so as teams around the league evaluate how their own young players, similar in age, draft position and potential, are going and whether it might be time for a change. The Rangers are reportedly looking to exchange Kravtsov for someone that can slot into the role in the top-nine that he was expected to fill.
We will see though. Maybe he isn’t traded until the deadline or the offseason, or maybe he decides to suck it up, go to Hartford and work his way back to the Rangers. It seems unlikely, but as noted above, no one ever expected Puljujarvi to play for the Oilers again and now he plays with Connor McDavid. Drouin requested a trade in January 2016, withdrew that request in June 2016, played the 16-17 season in Tampa (53 points in 73 games) and was traded to Montreal in June 2017. Do I think Kravtsov could return? Yes. Do I think he is ultimately part of the Rangers long-term plans, probably not, but similar to Drouin, he could return and then get moved sometime after.