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Prospect Info: 2018 NHL Draft / Pick #9 - Vitali Kravtsov (RW) - Part VII

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Brooklyn Rangers Fan said:
Oh, FFS, really? This generalizing xenophobic BS again? You wouldn't draft Ovechkin? Or Kuznetzov? Or Tarasenko? Or...

This one situation has hit a bump in the road, that's it. And it's been all of two months, for crying out loud. I'm not saying all is well, but there's every possibility 1-2 years from now everyone will forget it happened, just like Buch's need to take time off to work on his core conditioning.
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I don’t agree with him either, but xenophobic? Talk about being a drama queen...you know what the Russian Factor is, right?
 
redwhiteandblue said:
I can appreciate a culture shock for sure. I’m not trying for down on Vitali but things have gotten off the rails here. I can understand things being mentally a drag, I dealt with that stuff later in my 20s rather then being younger. Different strokes I guess. It doesn’t change though that this whole thing is getting worse and worse.

To me, I don’t buy the conditioning excuse but I’ll go with it I guess. I just tend to think where there’s smoke there's fire and smoke is billowing out of this camp about his attitude being off. I also don’t see how the Rangers could miss how bad he was struggling and not get him help like they did Kakko, so it makes me wonder what the situation in his time with the team wasn’t like if he was really struggling. That seems like it would be a huge oversight. I guess for me from the outside looking in, it’s just gets a bad vibe.

At this point I’d really like to see the Rangers step up reach out to Vitali and explain why he should come to Hartford. I hope Vitali would make the right decision and open up to how they could help his transition and come back over and work towards finishing a good first year overseas.

I also certainly do not feel like this is the end of the road for VK though. I’m concerned but it’s not the end of his story.
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Trying to understand the conditioning argument, I do realize that bad conditioning doesn't always show immediately. It's possible it was just used as a quick way out during the interview by the head coach of course, but is it possible that the conditioning issues presented itself after a few weeks, when he wasn't able to keep up with the KHL pace that long, after spending significant time in North America, and in Hartford where they go without games for 5 days?

He had an assist last night so that's at least something positive.
 
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xenophobia-xenophobia-everywhere.jpg
 
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Inferno said:
The Russian factor .. that's the factor that makes ovechkin and kucherov 2 of the 5 best players in the world right?
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If Panarin was from Muuuuuurica, he would be a consistent 120+ point player. The blood flowing through his commie veins clearly prevents him from reaching his true ceiling.

I blame Putin. And Gorbachev.
 
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Kupo said:
If Panarin was from Muuuuuurica, he would be a consistent 120+ point player. The blood flowing through his commie veins clearly prevents him from reaching his true ceiling.

I blame Putin. And Gorbachev.
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First of all, you are wrong. The red commie blood is what makes him fly on the ice. Get it right. They train on Siberian ice, after all

Second of all, I live under a rock. Can you or anyone explain what the "Russian Factor" is to me?
 
This situation doesn't make me concerned about drafting Russians.

But this situation does make me concerned about the Rangers front office passing up Russians in the future.
 
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McRanger said:
This situation doesn't make me concerned about drafting Russians.

But this situation does make me concerned about the Rangers front office passing up Russians in the future.
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I have mild reservations about guys committed to playing in the KHL--only because it's so hard to exercise any control over them. Nothing against the KHL. Kids playing in the CHL or NCAA, because everyone has connections, it's easier to pull some strings. Other European leagues have the transfer agreements, so we can jump in when we want, which we can't in the KHL. So I just hate that we basically have no control over a kid drafted from the KHL.

Of course, there are so many talented Russian players, you obviously can't avoid the KHL entirely. I guess for me it just boils down to if I had two guys totally even, I'd take the one not playing in the KHL.
 
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Amazing Kreiderman said:
Trying to understand the conditioning argument, I do realize that bad conditioning doesn't always show immediately. It's possible it was just used as a quick way out during the interview by the head coach of course, but is it possible that the conditioning issues presented itself after a few weeks, when he wasn't able to keep up with the KHL pace that long, after spending significant time in North America, and in Hartford where they go without games for 5 days?

He had an assist last night so that's at least something positive.
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I view the conditioning stint as a convenient excuse to try and send a message to a kid they might not feel like they have control of. I think we can both agree that there's been plenty of times in sports where teams use bs excuses to send a player down, hold them out of the lineup, or serve whatever purpose they see fit.

If you just look at the timeline of events it seems like a kid who has been poorly advised after having a poor attitude to adversity. To me, especially with how underwhelming he has been, I don't buy that two weeks off of skating ruined him to a point of a conditioning stint. I'd say it's probably more likely his bad attitude is carrying over, he came back expecting it to be easier, and when it wasn't he got another bad attitude. After everything that happened in NY it's not outlandish to think this is the scenario now.

Again, it's not the end of the road for the kid, but it's a lot easier to buy he still has a bad attitude rather than his conditioning is lost. Lets all be real here, the KHL may be oddly more well conditioned because of how teams view their players but the NHL is the NHL. Training Camp is taken seriously by non-veteran players. He was in the gym all summer and had been on the ice for over a month. In real action.

It just seems much more plausible he has a bad attitude not a poor set of lungs and legs at Christmas time.
 
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I just wanted to say that cultural stereotypical constructions (like the "Russian factor") are note per se Xenophobic. They are at very least prejudice though.
 
I always thought the "Russian Factor" in terms of drafting concerns was more that Russians have the most attractive alternative professional league so there's always some measure of risk a player might not want to come over if they're already playing in the KHL, making good money, are comfortable etc.
 
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The whole situation bothers me. It seemed like he completely bought into the Rangers organization over the spring/summer, and he really wanted to be here. Who knows what the conversations were like during negotiations behind closed doors. For all we know he could've been told that he would be developing in the NHL and playing in the top 9 this year. Then we sign Panarin, don't move a couple fwd pieces like we were anticipating, and Krav falls down the depth chart. They were all in on the rebuild when he signed, so who knows what he was told. Maybe he does have the right to be pissed off. Maybe this is on the Rangers.

On the other hand, he sulked when he didn't get his way. Didn't seem to think he had to prove anything when he got sent to the AHL. Goes back to Russia, the struggle continues. Now he's left with zero confidence in a crucial development year. Its a tough spot to be in if your Kravtsov and a tough spot to be in if your the Rangers.
 
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Kupo said:
If Panarin was from Muuuuuurica, he would be a consistent 120+ point player. The blood flowing through his commie veins clearly prevents him from reaching his true ceiling.

I blame Putin. And Gorbachev.
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Hey man, glasnost.
 
bigdog16 said:
They were all in on the rebuild when he signed, so who knows what he was told. Maybe he does have the right to be pissed off. Maybe this is on the Rangers.
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Kravstov did nothing to earn a spot in the starting line up out of camp. This is an unfortunate situation, but this is all on him.
 
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