Vitali Kravtsov Won't Play for Traktor This Season

Vitali Kravtsov has confirmed he does not intend to play for Tractor Chelyabinsk this season, saying the club offered to convert his current contract into bonuses that would be difficult to reach after an injury.

"We tried to find some common ground with the club. I was ready to move on the terms. But they offered to convert my current contract into bonuses that will be hard to get after the injury. That is, I need to score at least a point a game as a minimum. On top of that, there is a condition to get through the first round with Tractor. Only then would all the bonuses be paid, and they make up the whole sum of my current contract," Kravtsov said.

Asked what a season under those terms would leave him with, he did not hold back.

"I told the club, 'Sorry, but I don't agree to that.' They told me there would be no other offer. I said, 'Fine, then.' And I flew home to Vladivostok, where I'm continuing my recovery," Kravtsov said.

On his recovery, he said skating could resume within a week, with a full return to games roughly a month away. Asked whether he would be back in Chelyabinsk had the club found terms that suited both sides, he said yes — but added the conditions put to him were unacceptable, and he turned them down. He said he would accept a trade as a way out of the situation, adding that his priority is to be healthy, play hockey and be somewhere he is respected and allowed to fulfil his potential.

Journalist Alexei Shevchenko reported separately that Kravtsov does not plan to play for Tractor this season "under Ivan Savin" — the club's general manager — and intends to file a complaint or take the matter to a civil court over how the contract is being handled.

A trade looks the likeliest resolution if neither side moves. A civil suit over contract terms would be an unusual step for a KHL player and could keep Kravtsov out well beyond his recovery timeline regardless of how the hockey side of the dispute is settled.