Robin Kovacs Placed on Unconditional Waivers for Purposes of Contract Termination
When the Hartford Wolfpack announced nine roster moves on Friday, one name was noticeably missing from the list. Forward Robin Kovacs wasn’t among the 26 players still attending Hartford’s training camp, but he also wasn’t listed as one of the team’s nine cuts for the day.
Kovacs, who was selected with the 62nd overall pick in the 2015 Draft, had already had a rough pre-season, as he was among the first group of cuts from the Rangers’ training camp, not even lacing his skates up for a single pre-season game. Now, an answer has emerged that explains the organizations peculiar handling of Kovacs throughout the pre-season:
Am told forward Robin Kovacs, at Hartford camp, is being placed on unconditional waivers and returning to Sweden
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) October 1, 2017
After struggling through a sub-par debut season in North America last year (2 Goals, 10 Assists in 72 games for the Wolfpack) and a tumultuous summer in his native Sweden, the Rangers have decided that completely cutting ties with Kovacs is in the franchise’s best interest.
Adam Herman ranked Kovacs as the 12th best prospect in the organization this summer, so the Rangers are losing a player with upside. While Kovacs never seemed like a candidate to develop into a high-end forward in New York, he projected as a depth scorer that could fill out an NHL roster’s bottom six if his development went according to plan.
Kovacs’ departure from the organization piles on to what could already be considered an abhorrent 2015 draft class by Jeff Gorton, Gordie Clark, and the rest of the team’s scouting staff. Kovacs joins Aleksi Saarela (89th) and Brad Morrison (113th) as prospects who have already left the organization. With only four prospects remaining (Ryan Gropp, Sergey Zborovskiy, Daniel Bernhardt, and Adam Huska) from that year’s draft class, and only one with legitimate NHL potential, things aren’t looking good for New York’s crop of 2015 draftees.
