New York Rangers Rumblings: Kravtsov playing, Rierden hiring

Some news out of Russia as New York Rangers prospect Vitali Kravtsov’s season begins

The New York Rangers will have to wait until Saturday night to figure out where that first round draft pick acquired from Carolina will end up.  It was a night for comebacks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Flyers and Canucks both came back from series deficits to force seventh games in their series.

It’s going to be a hell of a weekend for hockey fans with seventh games for the Avalanche-Stars and Golden Knights-Canucks on Friday night and Game Seven of the Islanders-Flyers series on Saturday.   The last time there were as many as three seven games series in the Second Round was in 2014 when the Blueshirts toppled the Penguins, coming back from a 3-1 deficit.

That draft pick will move up as many as three spots if the Islanders, Stars and Canucks can win their series.  If they all win, the pick will be 21st overall.

Kravtsov’s season starts

We’ve noted previously that it is a benefit for Vitali Kravtsov to be playing in the KHL and the regular season began on September 2.  Kravtsov is playing for Traktor Chelyabinsk and they began their season with a 3-1 loss to Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg.

Kratvsov didn’t dent the scorecard and finished with a plus/minus of -1 on the game.  He played 16:41 with 23 shifts and had five shots on goal.

It’s worth noting that after the Rangers loaned Kravtsov to Traktor, he did not play in any of the team’s preseason games so this was his first real game since the Hartford Wolf Pack season ended in March.  His next game will be on Sunday against Kunlun Red Star, coached by ex-Ranger Alexei Kovalev.

For you trivia fans, the first Avtomobilist goal was scored by defenseman Sergey Zborovsky.  He was drafted by the Rangers in the third round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft after playing for the Regina Pats in the WHL.   He spent the 2017-18 season in North America playing in the ECHL and ten games with Hartford.  The Rangers terminated his contract after that season and he has been in the KHL ever since.

The other Ranger property playing in the KHL is defenseman Yegor Rykov who is playing for CSKA Moscow.  He played 15:38 in their season opener, a 3-2 overtime loss to Ak Bars Kazan.  Rykov is a third pair defenseman for CSKA, but considering that the team had the best record in the KHL last season, a regular role has to be seen as a positive.

Todd Reirden hired by Penguins

In an earlier article, Blue Line Station mused that the Rangers would be interested in hiring depose Capitals coach Todd Reirden to replace Lindy Ruff.  That speculation went out the window when the Blueshirts hired Jacques Martin, whose contract had not been renewed by the Penguins.    Lo and behold, defensive coaching whiz Reirden was just hired by the Penguins to replace who else?  Jacques Martin.

If you believe in conspiracy theories, is it possible that the Penguins wanted Reirden badly enough that they sold the Rangers on hiring Martin?   The story was that Penguins coach Mike Sullivan called David Quinn and convinced his college buddy to take on the unemployed former Pens assistant coach.  If Sullivan was targeting Reirden all along, it’s a little suspicious.  Just saying.

In the long run, we will see who ends up with the better defensive assistant coach.  Both Reirden and Martin won Stanley Cups in that role, though Jacques Martin has more experience as a head coach.