6:30 PM: Brooks writes that the Rangers have been “pleased” with Kravtsov’s “progress” this season and that he has been in “regular communication” with Chris Drury throughout the season. (NY Post)
4:42 PM: Larry Brooks tweets that Vitali Kravtsov will not join the Rangers for the playoffs and will instead begin his offseason training in Russia.
Brooks adds that “the plan” is for Kravtsov to come to NY early in the summer to get a “head start” on training camp. (Brooks)
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Kravtsov’s season in the KHL came to end when his team was eliminated from the playoffs in the last few days.
He had six goals and seven assists in 19 regular season games and seven goals and three assists in 10 playoff games.
Adam Rotter: It feels like all of that needs an asterisk of “If he’s not traded.” Maybe the Rangers really do feel that they can repair the relationship and a summer working out in the area with guys like Chris Kreider will get him back on track and back to being a big part of the Rangers future. Maybe it’s just posturing to show other teams that Kravtsov is committed to the NHL and that he’s willing to spend the summer in North America to show it.
Plenty of players requests trades and still have to play for those teams. Jake DeBrusk has wanted out of Boston for a while and he’s still there. Vladimir Tarasenko wanted out of St. Louis and he’s had an outstanding year with the Blues. So if the Rangers have set a price for Kravtsov and it hasn’t been met, or they haven’t found a trade worth packaging him in, he could very easily come to training camp again with a chance to play a big role.