The Habits Vitali Kravtsov Built Last Year are Paying off This Season
The New York Rangers drafted Vitali Kravtsov ninth-overall in the 2018 NHL Draft to perform one task, and to perform it exceptionally well — produce offence.
He looked the part right out of the gate too, scoring 21 points in 50 KHL games with Traktor Chelyabinsk in his draft-plus-one season.
So, the two sides came together, and Kravtsov put pen to paper on an entry-level contract ahead of the 2019-20 season, and the expectations of a high-flying NHL debut were set.
A difficult training camp, one point through five AHL contests, a trip back to the motherland and back again later, it was clear that Kravtsov wasn’t quite there yet. And in a ravenous hockey market like New York, not quite there yet might as well be never going to get there, depending on your mileage.