The Rangers have a Calder Trophy candidate
By Steve Paulus
An overlooked contender from the Rangers
Vitali Kravtsov will be given a full shot to win a top six starting role on the team. The right winger finally got his chance with the Rangers last season, playing in 20 games while scoring two goals and four points. He played mostly on the third line, limiting his ice time, though at the end of the season he got some top six minutes and displayed some of the skill that made the Rangers pick him ninth overall in 2018.
No mistaking this one, Vitaly Kravtsov gets his FIRST NHL goal! 🎉🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/6OCujd9x71
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) April 18, 2021
The Russian has to be considered a stealth candidate for the Trophy and at age 21, he may be ready to break out. Before coming to New York, he played a full season in the KHL with 16 goals and 24 points in 49 games and followed that up with two goals and four points in the KHL playoffs.
Compare that to Kirill Kaprisov who at 20 years of age played for CSKA in the KHL and scored 15 goals and 40 points in 46 games and two goal and 10 points in 19 playoff games. Those are better numbers than Kravtsov’s, but are not overwhelming.
In 2018-19, Kravtsov was ranked 11th among prospects under 23 years of age. He dropped to 90th overall in 2019-20 and he was recently ranked 129th in the NHL by The Athletic’s Corey Pronman (subscription required). That’s a significant drop and Kravtsov has something to prove.
In his remarks last week, Rangers General Manager Chris Drury had this to say about Kravtsov who isn’t taking part in the prospects development camp. “We just felt like we wanted him with the NHL skaters… We were excited with big parts of his game last year.”