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Just a day after clearing cap space in a major three-team trade, the Los Angeles Kings locked up defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a two-year contract. Gavrikov was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and his extension carries a $5.88 million cap hit.
Acquired at the trade deadline from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gavrikov fit in immediately within the Kings’ top-four. The team desperately needed a legitimate shutdown defender, especially on the left side, and Gavrikov was just that. He averaged over 21 minutes per games with the Kings, adding nine points in 20 regular season games. Locking up Gavrikov was a priority and having him back keeps the team’s blue line looking a lot more solid.
As for the contract itself, it’s fair to not be completely thrilled. Most comparables for Gavrikov would’ve put him around a four or five-year deal at a much lower cap hit. So to get nearly $6 million and be eligible to hit free agency again only two years from now isn’t the best for Los Angeles. The Kings aren’t necessarily getting long-term security and are overpaying for the two years they get him, making it a bit more difficult to lock up Gabriel Vilardi and Joonas Korpisalo as well.
The deal also carries a full no-move clause, meaning if the Kings did find themselves in a position where they wanted to trade Gavrikov for assets before the deal expires, it would completely within his right to reject any deal and just walk away as a free agent in 2025.
At the same time, the Kings are still in a much, much better spot than if Gavrikov had left in free agency. Plus, I suppose they don’t have to worry about the contract not aging well, given the minimal risk attached to the limited term.
There were very few defensemen available in free agency who could provide a similar impact to Gavrikov. Plus given the relatively thin market, we can expect there’s a good chance other defenders will be overpaid as well.
Locking up Gavrikov is one major item down, and the attention will now shift to Gabriel Vilardi and on a more pressing note, Joonas Korpisalo.
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On a side note: For anyone interested, over the last while, I’ve been working on a small project to project contracts for this year’s group of free agents. Any UFAs or RFAs with more than 10 NHL games played this year will have a projection, with an article being released for the Top 50 free agents to give a more detailed breakdown of each projection.
Most of the players designated as a Top-50 Free Agent don’t have a projection released yet, and 2-3 will be posted each day throughout June, leading up to free agency on July 1. However, other UFAs and RFAs do have a projection already available.
For the Kings, projections are out for Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Rasmus Kupari, Zack MacEwen and Alex Edler. In-depth projection articles for Gabriel Vilardi and Joonas Korpisalo will be out soon as well.
The project can be found at:
HockeyComparables.com and on Twitter, using @Hockey_Comps.
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OTHER ARTICLES FROM JUNE
3 players most likely to be traded by the Kings this offseason
Kings trade Cal Petersen, Sean Walker and Helge Grans to Flyers 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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