Confirmed with Link: Vladislav Gavrikov signs 2 year contract extension

[KopitarGOAT420]

The path was painful and somewhat costly....but Gavrikov is 80% better than Chychrun, McCabe, or the other deadline defensemen. He's tremendous. Period. He was on the oce for a few ES goals in the reg season...made Roy look like an allstar and Roy vice versa make Gavrikov look like an allstar....

and EVERY time Gavrikov activated, was more dangerous than ANY KING FORWARD, not named Kopitar, Fiala, Kempe. He's a star. Period. With more offensive upside...McCabe was like -8 for the Leafs in the playoffs! Chychrun pretty much is meh and will always have injuries. Was plus 5 vs Edmonton...going on memory...while DD and Mikey were minuses. Gav is the best defensemen on the Kings....PLEASE give Clarke some time with him, in preseason.

I'd love to see Gavrikov get some PP time and activate more. He had 8 goals and 25 assists a few seaosns ago.

Hate Blake. I don't care. But getting Danault, Arvidsson, Fiala, Gavrikov (Copley and Korpisalo?) has made this team better.
Sure, he's made some blunders.

Agree, especially in terms of wanting to see a Gavrikov/Clarke D pairing.

It's hard to imagine a better D partner to put with a player like Clarke as he steps into the league.

Gavrikov has good size. Is well known for having a great/active stick and using his long reach to break up plays. And is also known for shot blocking and playing a sound defensive game. At the same time, as you point out, he's also not afraid too activate offensively, and has good skills/instincts when doing so.

Clarke would be able to take risks and make mistakes, with a pretty solid safety net behind him.

The other thing a Clarke / Gavrikov pairing would do is ensure some realllllly solid defensive depth for the Kings as that scenario would likely mean Matt Roy would be anchoring the bottom pair. Roy is good enough to where, regardless of who you throw on the left side of that 3rd pair, it should at least be pretty solid.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The other thing a Clarke / Gavrikov pairing would do is ensure some realllllly solid defensive depth for the Kings as that scenario would likely mean Matt Roy would be anchoring the bottom pair. Roy is good enough to where, regardless of who you throw on the left side of that 3rd pair, it should at least be pretty solid.

TM hears you, and throws out Sean Durzi on LHD.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

If the Kings could land a Juuse Saros for a package of Arthur Kaliyev and Sean Durzi, would you guys pull the trigger? Saros has two years remaining and will be a UFA at the age of 30 when his contract runs out, but he's also been a model of consistency in net and would give the Kings a legit top flight goaltender.

Plugging in a netminder like Saros behind a defense of Anderson-Doughty, Gavrikov-Clarke, Bjornfot-Roy-Spence would be a significant upgrade over having turds like Edler, Walker and Durzi in the lineup.

 

[Moses Doughty]

If the Kings could land a Juuse Saros for a package of Arthur Kaliyev and Sean Durzi, would you guys pull the trigger? Saros has two years remaining and will be a UFA at the age of 30 when his contract runs out, but he's also been a model of consistency in net and would give the Kings a legit top flight goaltender.

Plugging in a netminder like Saros behind a defense of Anderson-Doughty, Gavrikov-Clarke, Bjornfot-Roy-Spence would be a significant upgrade over having turds like Edler, Walker and Durzi in the lineup.

I'd drive them to the airport right now

 

[funky]

Don’t rule out Arvy and/or Durzi still being moved at the draft

trade Vilardi for Hart and you have a 2 for 1

 

[SmytheKing]

If the Kings could land a Juuse Saros for a package of Arthur Kaliyev and Sean Durzi, would you guys pull the trigger? Saros has two years remaining and will be a UFA at the age of 30 when his contract runs out, but he's also been a model of consistency in net and would give the Kings a legit top flight goaltender.

Plugging in a netminder like Saros behind a defense of Anderson-Doughty, Gavrikov-Clarke, Bjornfot-Roy-Spence would be a significant upgrade over having turds like Edler, Walker and Durzi in the lineup.

Yes. Absolutely.

I'd rather they give Kaliyev time to grow and be better here, but they aren't going to do that. So, move him and improve the team instead.

 

[jgs]

Alright Gorvi signed for 2 years, now need to sign Vilardi and decide what to do with the goaltender situation.

 

[Scottkmlps]

Durzi yes.

But I don't understand what people have against Lizotte. He's an excellent 4th line center.

I think JAD could do the job just as well, playing consistently. Not 2 games in 10 out, and for less money.

 

[bland]

I think JAD could do the job just as well, playing consistently. Not 2 games in 10 out, and for less money.

Not even remotely close.

 

[chris kontos]

The Kings won't win the cup anytime soon so do you think its time to trade Drew Doughty? I would like to see your opinions.

Way past time. Doughty looks like a player who has totally lost interest and is in need of a change. He will be here for the duration

 

[bland]

Getting rid of Lizotte and Durzi also opens up over $3.3M in cap space, and both were utterly useless weak links in the postseason and absolutely got dominated against Edmonton.

How about the $20 million + spent on the #1C and D who were caved in for five straight games worse than Durzi or Lizotte?

Of course you can't "get rid" of them, but the point is that folks are getting caught up on the parsley when the main course is over-cooked AND cold.

 

[BigKing]

The guy was pretty damn awesome when he came over with his eagerness to jump into the play offensively being a nice surprise.

It's still pretty gnarly when you step back and see everything that was used to get to this place but here we are. The Kings are a better team with him than without him. There is no doubt about that in a vacuum but the overall outlook of this "rebuild" is still depressing.

 

[KINGS17]

The guy was pretty damn awesome when he came over with his eagerness to jump into the play offensively being a nice surprise.

It's still pretty gnarly when you step back and see everything that was used to get to this place but here we are. The Kings are a better team with him than without him. There is no doubt about that in a vacuum but the overall outlook of this "rebuild" is still depressing.

I agree, a better team yes, a better organization, nope.

 

[KingsHockey24]

It sucks that we're likely shopping Durzi because in my opinion he has the highest potential of all the regulars we had on the back end last season.

-Drew Doughty is what he is at this point
-Mikey Anderson's ceiling isn't very high (stay at home #3)
-Vladislav Gavrikov is in his prime
-Matt Roy probably won't be anything better than a #4 ever
-Sean Walker is gone
-Alex Edler probably retired

I think Durzi is capable of 50+ points while have some bite to his game. He's only a year older than Vilardi/Kupari/etc. so he's likely to improve in his own end as he gets more experience.

He reminds me a lot of Brandon Montour who is coming off a 70+ point/100 PIM season.

 

[AbsentMojo]

I think everyone agrees that the regular season and the post season are two different types of hockey with different rules that are optimized for different skillsets. DL had this down cold and he and DS poo poo'd the regular season - almost mockingly (and esp after winning as an 8 seed). Its seems these hard learned lessons are totally lost on the current regime. The game has changed since the cup years to be more skilled, but the premise that you can go with majority skill and without the 'heavy' game in your philosophy is empirically wrong. So my main problem with Blake is his roster philosophy. I dont like much about his other qualities but the roster is the biggest problem.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

TM hears you, and throws out Sean Durzi on LHD.

Lmao you're probably right.

Thing is, if Durzi - Roy is our bottom pairing, that's honestly really not bad. It definitely wouldn't be my first choice - But it'd be fairly solid.

The real problem with keeping Durzi is that it would block Clarke from getting powerplay time. That would be a mistake.

 

[bmr]

It sucks that we're likely shopping Durzi because in my opinion he has the highest potential of all the regulars we had on the back end last season.

-Drew Doughty is what he is at this point
-Mikey Anderson's ceiling isn't very high (stay at home #3)
-Vladislav Gavrikov is in his prime
-Matt Roy probably won't be anything better than a #4 ever
-Sean Walker is gone
-Alex Edler probably retired

I think Durzi is capable of 50+ points while have some bite to his game. He's only a year older than Vilardi/Kupari/etc. so he's likely to improve in his own end as he gets more experience.

He reminds me a lot of Brandon Montour who is coming off a 70+ point/100 PIM season.

I think Clarke has a higher potential than Durzi. I think Durzi has quite a big of value and could fetch the Kings more of what they're looking for.

 

[AbsentMojo]

It sucks that we're likely shopping Durzi because in my opinion he has the highest potential of all the regulars we had on the back end last season.

I think Durzi is capable of 50+ points while have some bite to his game. He's only a year older than Vilardi/Kupari/etc. so he's likely to improve in his own end as he gets more experience.

He reminds me a lot of Brandon Montour who is coming off a 70+ point/100 PIM season.

Montour is a much better skater. Montour was traded because he had Druzi-like brainfarts with the Ducks.. but the guy has wheels and looks like a nice top 4 defenseman now. Due to Durzi's scrub level skating he will never be anything other than a 3D PP specialist. If you didnt have Clarke and Spence Id say keep him around to play 3RD and PP2 at a cheap price.. but those guys make him totally obsolete.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Great deal for Gavrikov. Necessary deal for the Kings.

Secondly, I would hate to see Kaliyev moved because I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of what he’s capable of. BUT Saros is a fantastic long term solution to a position of importance, so I would be okay with it.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

If the Kings could land a Juuse Saros for a package of Arthur Kaliyev and Sean Durzi, would you guys pull the trigger? Saros has two years remaining and will be a UFA at the age of 30 when his contract runs out, but he's also been a model of consistency in net and would give the Kings a legit top flight goaltender.

Plugging in a netminder like Saros behind a defense of Anderson-Doughty, Gavrikov-Clarke, Bjornfot-Roy-Spence would be a significant upgrade over having turds like Edler, Walker and Durzi in the lineup.

This is so tough. As a big Kaliyev fan/supporter/believer.... I reallllllly would prefer keeping him.

But ultimately, yes... I would probably pull the trigger on that deal assuming the Kings don't have to give up much else other than those two.

Like you said, Saros would give the Kings a legit top goaltender for the next 2 seasons. That's huge.

With a goalie like Saros, the Kings would easily be a top team for the next two seasons and would be poised to be a serious threat in the playoffs. To me, that's worth giving up on Kaliyev and Durzi.

 

[KingsHockey24]

I think Clarke has a higher potential than Durzi. I think Durzi has quite a big of value and could fetch the Kings more of what they're looking for.

Oh forsure; I was just saying from the regulars on our back end from this past season Durzi probably has the highest.

 

[bland]

Oh forsure; I was just saying from the regulars on our back end from this past season Durzi probably has the highest.

Durzi also WANTS to be a difference maker, which is exceedingly rare for the kids who see their ambition neutered away in the Kings developmental process.

He would be a fine bottom pairing specialist if it weren't for the fact that there are two better options already here to replace him.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

The Kings do not need to trade for an 'elite' goalie to win in the playoffs.
Just a capable one, playing well for a 20-24 game stretch.

Here's a list of UFA goalies:
Korpisalo
Adin Hill (can vegas pay him, or outpay a suitor, if he hoists cup?)
Varlamov
Raanta
Jarry
Quick. Wait, no one that cried for 7 days, doesn't want him now?

Non elite goalies lift the cup: Kuemper, Cam Ward, Holtby, Binnington and looking to be Adin HILL
Cups are won by teams that gel, play through pain / injuries, don't take too many
penalties, have character, depth, good special teams, can shut down their opponent,
solid goaltending.

Top goalies like Vasilevskiy, Ullmark have had stellar seasons and lost in round 1.
Who here, would have believed Adin Hill OR Bobrovsky would EVER lift a cup?
No, any team with either of those as your starter, goalteding would be considered
a hole and that team had no chance of winning a cup. zero. And yet.

Teams with '1 or 2 holes and 1-3 years from contending' win Stanley Cups.

 

[GKJ]

Likely a smart play on both sides. Long term deals for defensemen into their 30’s almost never work. Someone has the sense to take flexibility in over term.

 

[rajuabju]

Great deal. Very very happy with both the term and AAV.