In the past 72 hours, New York Rangers’ 2018 first round pick Vitali Kravtsov left a game with an injury and had his agent announce that he would be coming to North America following this KHL season.
Even though the armchair G.Ms of Twitter dismissed the New York Rangers’ selection of Russian forward Vitali Kravtsov as the front office trying to be too cute with a top ten pick, it certainly seems like he’s going to be a pretty good player. The 18-year-old is outright dominating as a child playing in a men’s league over in Russia.
Through 33 KHL games, Kravtsov has registered 17 points including six goals. The fact that he’s doing this as a teenager on an outright bad Traktor team is all the more impressive. Given that the KHL season ends earlier than the NHL season, it was no surprise to hear from Kravtsov’s agent that he expects to make the leap to North America following the conclusion of his season.
Since Traktor is in ninth place in their league, it is unlikely that it will end up making the playoffs and allow Kravtsov to come over in March. The Rangers would then be free to sign the forward to his three-year entry-level contract. Whether or not the front office would immediately throw him to the wolves of the NHL is unknown.
In addition to the exciting news that the team’s ninth overall pick would be coming to the United States following the KHL season, there was also the scary hit that happened in Traktor’s game on Thursday morning. The forward took a nasty hip check and landed awkwardly on the ice which forced him to leave the game.
According to local media, the forward was okay but left the game for precautionary reasons. With so much in front of him, it was scary to see Kravtsov take such a nasty spill and end up laid out on the ice in pain. Thankfully for both the player and his team, it wasn’t anything too concerning.
With Kravtsov playing at a higher level than other current NHL players did during their teenage years in the KHL, the Rangers’ front office cannot be too careful.
Following Vitali Kravtsov’s game today, here is how he compares to several former KHL players who are currently in the NHL in two breakdowns: their first 32 KHL games in the season following their draft year and their first 92 career KHL games (regular season + playoffs) #NYR pic.twitter.com/lETtNg6zn6
— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) December 4, 2018
Those are some awfully big names and it’s important to keep everything in perspective. However, it’s extremely nice to see the Rangers with a high-end prospect that’s dominating in their developmental league. While the KHL is not the NHL, it’s the second best league in the world with genuine talent for Kravtsov to measure himself up against.
All things considered, the future of the Rangers looks pretty enticing. Chief amongst the reasons being Kravstov’s strong play over in the KHL.