Colorado Avalanche: Vitali Kravtsov Brings Soft Hands and Speed

The Colorado Avalanche might consider picking up a skilled, smooth-skating winger with their first-round pick. Enter Vitali Kravtsov.

The Colorado Avalanche are going to pick at around the #16 spot in the 2018 NHL Draft, which takes place June 22-23 in Dallas. GM Joe Sakic has already stated that the team will choose the best available player.

This year’s draft is very top-heavy. Numbers one (Rasmus Dahlin) and two (Andrei Svechnikov) are pretty well sorted. The next five or seven draftees are also pretty clear. After that, we get to a lot of gray area.

So, will the Colorado Avalanche look at their roster and draft best-available at a specific position that they need to fill? Because if that’s the case, they definitely need some boosting on wing.

Let’s see if right wing Vitali Kravtsov might be a possible candidate.

Vitali Kravtsov

2017-18 Team: Traktor Chelyabinsk (KHL)
Date of Birth: Dec. 23, 1999 (18 years old)
Ht: 6’2″
Wt: 182 pounds
Position: Right wing
Shoots: Left

Ranked #24 by HOCKEYPROSPECT.COM

Ranked #28 by FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

Ranked #3 by NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING (EU Skaters)

Right wing Vitali Kravtsov is one of the old men of the draft, having a late 1999 birthday. That fact may have given him a leg up on size and maturity.

However, size and maturity aren’t what scouts talk about first. They mention first his skill.

Elite Prospects starts off the praise by stating he has “very good hands and awareness.”

Tim McKinnon of The Hockey Writers comments that Kravtsov has “quick hands” and a “lethal wrist shot.” He remarks that Kravtsov has the potential to develop skill similar to Evgeny Kuzntsov.

However, it was Ben Kerr’s comparison that caught my eye — the Last Word on Hockey writer compared Kravtsov’s style to one of the most skilled stick handler out of Russia — Alexei Kovalev.

As always, Kerr goes into greater depth about Kravtsov’s offensive prowess:

“He can stickhandle in a phone booth. This makes him absolutely deadly in one-on-one situations. The best part of his game is that he can make all these moves and handle the puck while moving at top speed. If defenders back off to respect his speed and stickhandling, he has a deadly arsenal of shots that he can put on net.”

Kerr goes on to remark that both his wrist shot and his snapshot are “very good.” He observes that Kravtsov plays with the vision of a playmaker but is more of a “shoot first player.” Kerr calls Vitali “a natural sniper.”

Naturally, when it comes to the Colorado Avalanche, speed and overall skating are very important. All the scouts agree that Vitali Kravtsov displays high-end speed. What’s more, they remark that the Russian winger can stick handle at that speed — and that’s another quality that’s important to the Avs.

Here’s what Kerr says about Kravtsov’s skating:

“His ability to change speeds is a weapon on the rush… He can slow the play down to create space from defenders, and open up passing and shooting lanes, or get a step on a defender, drop his shoulder and cut into the front of the net. Kravtsov also has good agility and edge work.”

Some things that scouts think Kravtsov needs to work on are backchecking and game management — he tends to try and do it all himself with his incredible skill set. However, one thing that’s a little unusual in Russians — Vitali plays with an edge. The Draft Site remarks especially that he plays “aggressive, hard and with grit.”

Vitali Kravtsov won Rookie of the Year in the KHL.

Here’s Kravtsov in action:

Vitali Kravtsov and the Colorado Avalanche

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Last year I was dying for the Colorado Avalanche to pick up the elite skills of right wing Eeli Tolvanen even though he was ranked lower than Colorado’s fourth-overall. I suspect Kravtsov is this year’s Tolvanen.

Boy, his skills align perfectly with the Colorado Avalanche, who want a speedy skater with elite stick skills and who thinks the game fast. That seems to be Kravtsov. But the Russian winger is scouted to go lower than #16. He’s ranked third-overall among European skaters, but most scouts have him going in the late first round.

I would love for the Avalanche to take a chance on this winger. They might do so, if they’re drafting best available at a specific position. And they’ve shown a recent affinity for taking Russian players since they feel they’re developing a Russian ex-pat community with Semyon Varlamov and Nikita Zadorov at the center.

MORE COLORADO AVALANCHE PROSPECTS:

There’s going to be a good player available at the mid-first round in this year’s draft. We’ll have to wait and see if the Avs think that best-available is KHL Rookie of the Year Vitali Kravtsov.