Former Rangers 1st-round bust leaves NHL again, heads back to Russia
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than two months into his North American comeback, former New York Rangers first-round bust Vitali Kravtsov is heading back to Russia.
The Vancouver Canucks terminated Kravtsov’s contract Tuesday, releasing him from the organization. Kravtsov signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Canucks in early August, but he didn’t play a single NHL game this season. The 25-year-old had four points (one goal, three assists) and was minus-7 in 10 games with Abbotsford of the American Hockey League.
Ironically, Kravtsov’s AHL coach was Manny Malhotra, who also once was a first-round draft pick by the Rangers (in 1998). The Rangers selected Kravtsov in the first-round (No. 9 overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft, 20 years after they landed Malhotra at No. 8 overall.
Malhotra played 991 NHL games with six teams. Kravtsov’s at 66 NHL games with the Rangers and Canucks, and likely not adding to that total. It’s hard to imagine another NHL team pursuing him in the future, nor that Kravtsov yearns to try again to play in the League.
It’s not yet known why Kravtsov had his contract terminated. But respected Vancouver reporter and talk-show host Rick Dhaliwal posted on his X social media account that “Kravtsov wanted to go back home. It’s as simple as that.”
Shortly thereafter, Dhaliwal reported that Kravtsov has a KHL deal in place.
Former Rangers 1st-round bust Vitali Kravtsov released by Canucks
Russia, the KHL, and Traktor are Kravtsov’s comfort zones. He established career highs across the board offensively with 27 goals, 31 assists and 58 points in 66 games last season, and helped Traktor Chelyabinsk advance to the Gagarin Cup Final, where it lost the best-of-7 series in five games to Lokomotiv. Kravtsov was second on Traktor with six goals in 19 postseason games.
He scored 18 goals and finished with 34 points in 55 games with Traktor in 2023-24.
Kravtsov played just 48 games during his tumultuous tenure with the Rangers. He was the first of three first-round picks for the Rangers in 2018. None remain with the organization after they traded K’Andre Miller (No. 22 overall) to the Carolina Hurricanes this summer. Defenseman Nils Lundkvist (No. 28 overall) was traded to the Dallas Stars before the 2022-23 season.
The forward bucked the Rangers at every turn, especially the times they assigned him to Hartford of the American Hockey League for seasoning. Chris Drury, then the assistant general manager of the Rangers, called Kravtsov out in 2019 for quitting on the team. That led to more acrimony. And the talented forward bounced back between Russia and North America for several years.
Kravtsov had four points (two goals, two assists) in 20 games with the Rangers in 2020-21, a season he split between the NHL and KHL — to the organization’s chagrin. He was back in the NHL two years later and managed six points (three goals, three assists) in 28 games before the Rangers decided they had seen enough and traded him to the Canucks.
He played 16 games and had two points (one goal, one assist) for the Canucks in 2022-23.
