Two players, in conflict with their respective teams, ask to be exchanged
The NHL season kicks off tonight with two games! The first one will feature the Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Later in the evening, the two most recent teams to enter the Bettman circuit, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken, will cross swords.
Of course, with the official start of the season, all 32 NHL teams had to make their final cuts yesterday in order to meet the salary cap and maximum number of players allowed in the lineup. Among the players who were victims of the cut, two of them did not take the news well and decided to stay away from their organization.
The first one is defenseman Mikko Lehtonen who belonged to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The latter did not show up in Cleveland where the Blue Jackets' training club is located. The organization finally placed his name on unconditionnal waivers in order to end the agreement with the Finnish defenseman.
On the New York Rangers side, it was forward Vitali Kravtsov who asked the Rangers staff to trade him. The Russian is visibly unhappy with not being able to break into the Blue Shirts' lineup.
Kravtsov is only 21 years old and was selected ninth overall in 2018. So it's not surprising to see calls for him increase.
Could Marc Bergevin be interested in either of these two players with the many splits in the Tricolore's lineup?
