The Vitali Kravtsov experiment with the Abbotsford Canucks has ended.

Abbotsford parent club, the Vancouver Canucks, announced Tuesday that they have placed the 25-year-old forward on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. Kravtsov had returned to North America this past summer 

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Vancouver reporter Rick Dhaliwal posted on X that Kravtsov could be going back to the KHL with Traktor Chelyabinsk on a three-year contract. Kravtsov had spent the past two seasons in Chelyabinsk and had a 27-goal campaign in 2024-25 as the team reached the Gagarin Cup Final.

Kravtsov had signed a one-year, two-way contract with Vancouver on August 5. The team had originally acquired him from the New York Rangers in a Feb. 2023 trade before he went on to spend the next two seasons in the KHL. The Rangers selected him ninth overall in the 2018 NHL Draft. He played a portion of the 2019-20 season with the Hartford Wolf Pack and then moved between the Rangers and Chelyabinsk before they shipped him to Vancouver. In all, he has played 64 regular-season NHL games, going 6-6-12.

He failed to stick with Vancouver coming out of training camp, however, and was assigned to Abbotsford. In 10 AHL games this season, he managed just one goal to go with three assists.

Abbotsford, the defending Calder Cup champion, is off to a 2-7-0-1 start and has sunk to the bottom of the Western Conference. They are winless in eight consecutive games and suffered back-to-back defeats to the Henderson Silver Knights this past weekend that finished a six-game homestand. They picked up just one of a possible 12 points on the homestand and allowed five or more goals in four of those games.

A two-game trip to face the Colorado Eagles this Friday and Saturday will be followed by a two-game home set with the San Jose Barracuda next week. They then have a six-game road trip that will take them through the end of November.

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