Vitali Kravtsov officially made his NHL debut Saturday night in Buffalo.
The 21-year-old winger replaced Phillip Di Giuseppe in the Rangers lineup and appeared in the third line, alongside Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil. Kravtsov has been with the Blueshirts for just over a week since he cleared the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols, following the departure of his KHL Traktor team from the playoffs in early March.
“He’s been practicing well, he has enough time with us here,” head coach David Quinn said as Saturday was the right time for Kravtsov’s debut. “I just thought it was a good time to get him in.”
With the new children’s line, which now has an average age of 20, the fourth line will be made up of Colin Blackwell, Kevin Rooney and Julien Gauthier.
Kravtsov, the Rangers ’ninth overall team in 2018, reaches an impressive KHL 2020-21 season, in which he scored 16 goals and eight assists in 49 games. He also added two goals and two assists in five playoff games.
His promotion to the Rangers taxi squad on Saturday means he will get a maximum of $ 925,000.
“The first thing you want them to do is enjoy it,” Quinn said of her message to Kravtsov. “It simply came to our notice then. They will disappear quickly once you take a couple of turns. … Just play your game, don’t try to do too much, do the things that brought you here and enjoy the moment. “
Goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin made his fifth start in a six-game game for the second time in his career at the Rangers.
The Rangers added at least 62 goals in a calendar month (March) for the first time since December 1995.
In addition, Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome and Adam Fox each recorded at least 20 points during the month, only the sixth time in franchise history that three players added 20 or more points in the same calendar month. The last trio of players to do so were Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Pat Verbeek in 1995.
There are four Rangers who have 30 or more points this season (Strome, Fox, Artemi Panarin and Pavel Buchnevich). The Rangers are one of three NHL teams to have four players who have at least 30 points this season, along with the Lightning and Jets.
Of the 107 NHL players who have achieved at least 70 minutes of short ice time this season, Ryan Lindgren (1.96), Buchnevich (2.80) and Fox (3.44) are in first, second and the fourth quarter, respectively, in power goals against 60 minutes of power play.
Lindgren has only been on the ice for a power goal against this season, while Fox has been in two and Buchnevich has been in three. In 31 of the last 32 games, Lindgren has not been on the ice to score a power goal and has achieved a maximum of 80:39 of abbreviated ice time during this period.