Vitali Kravtsov’s development will continue for one more season in Russia after the likelihood arose that a conflict over the final year of his KHL contract would keep the Blueshirts’ 2018 ninth-overall draft selection off the ice for an extended period, The Post has learned.
Sources report that the KHL was prepared to file a grievance if Kravtsov had attempted to buy his way out of this second year of his entry-level deal with Traktor Chelyabinsk. The arbitration hearing process might have taken months, during which time the first-rounder would not have been able to play on either side of the Atlantic.