I didn't say he hated him and I didn't say you were wrong that it doesn't make a ton of sense that the org "hated," him.
But I do think that GG didn't like the player.
What's with this "Kravtsov didn't play well" narrative? In many respects he played just fine, he just didn't produce a ton of points versus expectations. He certainly was a f*** ton better than Blais this year by every measurement. VK had respectable metrics in many categories.
Gallant wanted a different TYPE of player for the opening remaining for him. If Krav wasn't ready to produce like a top 6er (and, fairly enough, he was not), he didn't want a guy who wasn't physical in the bottom six.
Of course now he has some guys in the bottom six, but they produce more and have been pushed there by guys like Tarasenko and Kane.
Putting him in the top 9 at RW and keeping him there would have produced a player worse than Vesey but better than Blais and we would have been a functional playoff team with that caliber of player growing in that role.
Without weighing in either way whether it was right to cut bait or not, Gallant was just not interested in having that player in the top 9, even though, again.... he was better than some of the other guys we had played there this year.
I didn't say he wanted him to fail, I said verbatim that I think Drury tried to make it work this year but once Gallant made it clear he didn't want him in the lineup that Drury either had to order GG to play him or move on.