The latest in a string of injuries that will sideline Vitali Kravtsov for, “at least a week,” per the Rangers, has created further complications when it comes to accruing space under the cap at the trade deadline.
Following Tuesday’s 1-0 overtime victory over the Flyers at the Garden on Chris Kreider’s breakaway backhander at 4:07 to cap an impressive blue-collar effort, the Blueshirts project to have approximately $775,000 available at the deadline, per CapFriendly. In other words, so long to Patrick Kane and hello to retaining the pair of first-round picks.
But it has also created an opportunity for the Rangers to send Kravtsov to the AHL Wolf Pack on a 14-day conditioning loan once the winger is cleared to return to play. (It has also opened the door for Julien Gauthier to establish himself as a top-nine wing, but that is secondary in this case).
A conditioning assignment would allow the 22-year-old winger, who has been injured three different times within his first four games, to get into the season and re-acclimate himself with the North American-sized rinks and stop-and-start stylistic demands without the pounding pressure of attempting to do that under the Broadway spotlight.
This is essentially necessary following the specter of the starts and stops of the 2018 ninth-overall draft selection’s first three weeks in which he has played a grand total of 28:52. That’s a game-and-period’s worth for Artemi Panarin.
But this can only happen if Kravtsov — out this time after hitting his head against the boards as a consequence of a collision with Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpaa in Dallas on Saturday — gives his consent.
This would not be a question for most players. But Kravtsov’s history suggests that this would be a question for this particular player who, a) exercised an out clause to return to Russia after a month in the AHL in his rookie pro season of 2018-19; and, b) bolted for Russia last year when he was assigned to the Wolf Pack out of training camp.
It has all been amicable in the interim. Rangers president-general manager Chris Drury lifted Kravtsov’s suspension and allowed the winger to play in the KHL. The winger then agreed to come to the New York area early this summer to get a head start on training camp. He put in the work, and though he did not have a particularly impressive camp, it was all copacetic.
It still is. But unless I miss my educated guess, the Rangers are going to make that request of Kravtsov when he’s ready to play. If he would be assigned to Hartford next Tuesday, he’d have six games from Nov. 9 through Nov. 20 on which to work on his conditioning — a total ice time of 28:52, remember — and self-awareness on the smaller sheet.
A week ahead of time, knowing that this was a hypothetical at the moment, I reached out to Kravtsov’s agent, Dan Milstein, and asked whether Kravtsov would give his consent as required by the collective bargainig agreement.
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The response by text was immediate and consisted of two words:
“No comment.”
Now, this might simply have been a standard response off of which nothing should be inferred. No request has been made, Milstein may not have broached the subject with his client. The agent just might not have wanted to get into it at all. All fair. Milstein might have texted, “It’s premature,” or, “It’s hypothetical,” to put words on his fingertips. But he did not. He replied, “No comment.”
Is it wrong, knowing the history, to interpret that as ominous? I don’t know. But it was kind of jarring. And that is probably not what anyone in the Rangers organization would have wanted to hear at this point.
Again. Kravtsov has been nothing but a good teammate. He is putting in the work. But he has made almost no impression from the start of camp through his four games in which he has not recorded so much as a shot, much less a point. In fact, he has been less dynamic and has seemed less confident than he was when he joined the Blueshirts for the final 20 games of the 2020-21 season.
This is certainly a function of the damage he did to himself — and, by extension, the organization — when he skipped out last season and wound up playing only 19 regular-season games and 15 in the playoffs last year in the KHL.
Kravtsov would require waivers to officially be assigned to the Wolf Pack. He would never clear. That would not be an option for Drury. And though the NHL is vigilant relating to abuse of conditioning loans, this one surely would be legit. It would not impact the cap situation, either pro or con. And after 14 days, Kravtsov would be back and in a position to hit the ground running.
But only if he agrees.
In another week, we should have a much better idea of the meaning of, “No comment.”
