EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Rangers weren’t happy that Vitali Kravtsov decided to go back to Russia in the first place, and they’re certainly not happy that the 19-year-old forward whom they took with the No. 9-overall pick in 2018 had not been playing very much for his team, Traktor, and was just demoted to their minor league.

So Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton has reached out to Kravtsov’s agent in hopes of figuring the situation out — and hopefully bringing Kravtsov back to play for AHL Hartford.

“He felt it was in his best interest to go back, and we allowed him to do that. I will say we’ve had a number of conversations with his agent recently just to revisit what’s best for him right now,” Gorton said Monday. “I’ll leave it to the conversations I’m having behind the scenes right now, and we’ll have to make a decision. Obviously we want the guy to play. If he’s not playing enough, then yes, we’d like to control his ice time a little bit.”

The Rangers can agree to bring Kravtsov back at any time, and Gorton reiterated the obvious fact that “the American League is better” than the minor league in Russia, known as the VHL.

Kravtsov came close to making the Rangers out of training camp, but was sent to the Wolf Pack to start the season. He played only five games before going back to Russia, where he had two goals and one assist in 11 games for Traktor.

Goalie Henrik Lundqvist is set to start Tuesday after he dealt with a minor back injury over the past week, having not played since Monday night.

“Had some issues with my back a few days ago,” he said, “but back to normal.”

Winger Brendan Lemieux was fined $2,000 for elbowing Cody Glass in the head on Sunday, not penalized but leaving the Vegas winger severely dazed.

“Anytime you hit someone and there’s an injury on the play, there’s a chance of something happening,” Lemieux said. “He had the puck, saw an opportunity to hit someone. Came in kind of sideways, my momentum took me back a little bit. And I caught him a little bit with my elbow. It was kind of a weird play. Completely accidental.”

Coach David Quinn said he is sticking with the same lines and lineup, meaning Micheal Haley will be the only healthy scratch.

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