Is Kravtsov a spoiled brat or just misunderstood?

A “contentious” meeting

This is where it gets interesting.  According to Mollie Walker of the New York Post, in his exit meeting with Rangers brass (post Gorton-Davidson), things got heated in a discussion over his off-season training.  According to Walker, it was so heated that Kravtsov thought he was on the trading block.  Additionally, Kravtsov voiced his belief that he should have played on the top six when he came up instead of spending his time on the fourth line.

While his off-season training is an issue we know nothing about, his belief that he should have had a bigger role is interesting.  He certainly wasn’t better than Pavel Buchnevich and it’s a question of whether he should have priority over Kaapo Kakko.  Then again, Colin Blackwell saw a lot of time on the top six with Kravtsov barely getting a chance there.

Misleading expectations

That brings us to this season. Although he had only 20 games under his belt, Kravtsov was not invited to the Prospects Development Camp.   Chris Drury said that he had more experience than the other prospects and he was invited to training camp with the veteran players.

Drury said “We just felt like we wanted him with the NHL skaters… We were excited with big parts of his game last year.”

That kind of message had to lead the 21-year old Kravtsov to believe that he was a virtual lock to make the Rangers roster.   And that explains the reaction when he was demoted.

Should he have been demoted?

This is the million dollar question and one that no one will truthfully answer.  The obvious reason is that he is waivers-exempt along with Morgan Barron and the team felt that they could lose players who had to be waived.  In other words, it was strictly a waivers-driven decision. But no one will say that.

Gallant said it was performance based. “There was no reason why, it was about picking your team that you’re moving forward with, trying to win hockey games.  We said there was a battle for those spots all training camp long and the other guys played well, some of the guys that stayed up,  Gauthier and  Hunt and those guys. They played really well in camp and they earned this position.”

He spoke specifically about Kravtsov.  “We like Kravy, he’s a good hockey player, a good talented player, hopefully he goes down to Hartford and plays really well. He’s a talented, skilled hockey player.  He missed some time with the injury.  I like his last game, he played better in his last game…things change in the NHL, we’ll see where it goes.”

While Julien Gauthier had a good camp, he still has scored twice in 47 NHL games. Kravtov’s power play goal against the Islanders was a shot from a skilled player. Dryden Hunt showed he can be a physical contributor, but he can’t be counted on to score, with six goals in 89 NHL games.

If anything, retaining Gauthier and Hunt and giving them a chance is something that we can expect from Gallant.  It’s how he had so much success in Vegas. Then again, there’s no way he could say that he kept Hunt and Gauthier just because the waivers issue.

With the Rangers going with 13 forwards and eight defensemen, it meant that the team had to send two players to Hartford.   There’s no way anyone in their right mind could say that Libor Hajek outplayed anyone this training camp.  He’s on the roster because they would losing him for nothing on a waiver claim.

The question that no one will answer is if waivers wasn’t an issue, would Hajek be in Hartford and Kravstov in New York?

Another question is whether we were expecting too much from the first round pick.