{"id":24229,"date":"2025-06-29T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T10:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24229\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T10:12:08","slug":"vladislav-gavrikov-expected-to-reach-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24229\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladislav Gavrikov Expected To Reach Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kings are not expecting to get an extension done with defenseman\u00a0Vladislav Gavrikov<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>before he reaches unrestricted free agency on Tuesday, general manager\u00a0Ken Holland<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>told reporters Saturday (including John Hoven of Mayor\u2019s Manor<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The news doesn\u2019t rule out Gavrikov returning to L.A. if they dole out the most competitive offer for him on the open market, but it does understandably significantly decrease the likelihood of him remaining in a Kings uniform next season. They\u2019ve had continued discussions with Gavrikov\u2019s camp on a new deal this week, but still aren\u2019t close, Holland said.<\/p>\n

The silver lining for Los Angeles is that Gavrikov has a limited number of teams he\u2019s considering signing with this summer, the Kings obviously being among them. The other presumed frontrunner for his services will be the Rangers, where there have been strong indications of mutual interest, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a> said last week.<\/p>\n

If Gavrikov departs, that\u2019s now two defense slots L.A. needs to replace on the open market or via trade. The team also traded<\/a> young righty\u00a0Jordan Spence<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to the Senators during today\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

Replacing Gavrikov directly will be a struggle. The 29-year-old is understandably looking to cash in following the best two-way season of his career, averaging over 23 minutes per game while posting 30 points and a +26 rating in 82 appearances for the Kings.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no one available who checks all the boxes of Gavrikov\u2019s strengths as a puck-mover, penalty-killer, and shot-blocker with a big frame. Some names could at least help them recoup a big chunk of Gavrikov\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

Ivan Provorov<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is one, and it looks like the fellow Russian lefty will be available next week with no extension looming with the Blue Jackets. He doesn\u2019t match Gavrikov\u2019s defensive skillset but could produce better possession impacts in an insulated L.A. system, and he has plenty of experience logging the type of deployment Gavrikov managed for the Kings this season. He\u2019s also one of the more durable players in the league and has three straight 82-game seasons under his belt.<\/p>\n

Matt Grzelcyk<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Ryan Lindgren<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Dmitry Orlov<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>round out the next tier of available lefties after Provorov, all of which present a more significant projected downgrade on the value Gavrikov brought to the Kings\u2019 blue line last season. Among trade targets, there could be an informal swap with the Rangers in the cards. Los Angeles has kicked tires on New York\u2019s\u00a0K\u2019Andre Miller<\/a><\/strong>, a pending RFA, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a>. A speculative sign-and-trade that sees Gavrikov head to Manhattan while the Kings acquire Miller\u2019s signing rights could be feasible.<\/p>\n

That would, of course, leave the Kings looking to pursue a more defensively responsible righty to replace the puck-moving Spence. That\u2019s not exactly the skillset Miller provides, and in order to get the most out of his all-around value, he\u2019d need something of an anchor partner next to him on the right side. Top open-market righties include Aaron Ekblad<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 although that likely won\u2019t work under the salary cap if they\u2019re already bringing in a speculative mid-priced asset in Miller \u2013 along with\u00a0Cody Ceci<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Henri Jokiharju<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Dante Fabbro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kings are not expecting to get an extension done with defenseman\u00a0Vladislav Gavrikov\u00a0before he reaches unrestricted free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[4348,2081,1649,293,62,67,132,68,7761],"class_list":{"0":"post-24229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-kandre-miller","9":"tag-los-angeles-kings","10":"tag-newsstand","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-vladislav-gavrikov"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114766121790646198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}