Can be recalled at anytime according to Larry Brooks, but if he doesn’t come back this year we still lose a year off his ELC. First off - unless he’s been absolutely dreadful in practice and not willing to be coached, I completely disagree with him being healthy scratched in Hartford. He should have been given top 6 minutes and given the chance to develop what they want him to learn. That’s how you develop young players and it’s what the AHL is there for. Awful player development and player management - unless he was an actual problem. That said, if he wasn’t ready for the North American game and hence his demotion to the AHL and the healthy scratches, I cannot for the life of me imagine that he is going to learn what it takes while back in Russia reinforcing the same bad habits. And is this is how he’s going to handle some adversity? Don’t work harder in practice, just take the path of least resistance and go back to Russia where you can glide around on open ice and wait for the puck to find you? This may end up not being a big deal, but right now it looks bad. I’m on the record saying I wanted Wahlstrom in that spot. Right handed sniper with some size. Wahlstrom is now in the NHL. Meanwhile Kravtsov has fled the country.
He needs to get physically stronger as well as get used to NA ice but since this is the only year he can do this i can kind of live with it if he needs the comfort of one more year there. Hopefully he can continue to add strength and improve overall. At his current size he would probably get banged around pretty good in the A. No more excuses going into next year.
I hear you that he needs to get physically stronger and get used to the NA ice...which is what he was supposed to be doing right now. I am not very confident he is going to be adding any strength over there, but maybe we get more access to him since he’s signed than we otherwise would. Either way, I think it’s obvious he’d be best served for getting stronger and acclimating to the North American ice in North America. It frustrates me that he signed to come here, we burn a year, and he ups and goes. I want to hear more about why we were scratching him.
Yeah, i don't know if it's his work habits or what that got him scratched there, strange. He seems like a good natured, smart kid who came here early to train and learn the language, so that would be a little puzzling. Maybe he's pouting some having not made the NHL right away. It'll be interesting to see what transpires with him.
Hopefully they replace Clark soon and become more open to drafting some Canadien players. Clark got old and lazy in some ways.
