East Notes: Bruins, Kravtsov, Red Wings

While the Bruins lost Sean Kuraly for the rest of the regular season last week, there is some help on the horizon on the injury front.  The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Torey Krug and Marcus Johansson could both return on Wednesday while blueliners Matt Grzelcyk and Kevan Miller are aiming to return this weekend.  With their first-round matchup all but guaranteed now, they will comfortably be able to ease these players back into the lineup without a whole lot of pressure.  Johansson is someone that will likely get a fair amount of playing time down the stretch given that he hasn’t played much with the team since being acquired from New Jersey back at the trade deadline.  Unfortunately for the Bruins, the injury news isn’t all good as blueliner John Moore left Monday’s game due to an upper-body injury.

More notes from the Eastern Conference:

• While the Rangers won’t be able to bring 2018 first-round pick Vitali Kravtsov over to finish off the season, GM Jeff Gorton told reporters, including Peter Botte of the New York Post, that he plans to talk to Kravtsov’s representative soon in the hopes of securing an entry-level deal for next season. His KHL deal runs through April 30th and even though his KHL team in Traktor Chelyabinsk has already been eliminated from the playoffs, they won’t release him from his deal early.  The 19-year-old had 21 points in 50 games this season while transitioning to play down the middle.
• With Jonathan Ericsson set to return, the Red Wings announced that they’ve returned defenseman Brian Lashoff to Grand Rapids of the AHL. He had been up with the team on an emergency basis so re-assigning him was required in order to not convert him to one of their four post-deadline recalls.  Meanwhile, the team also noted on Twitter that winger Thomas Vanek is dealing with a mid-body injury.  The veteran quietly sits fourth on Detroit in scoring this season with 36 points in 64 games.  There’s no word yet on the severity of the issue.