One of the worst-kept secrets heading into free agency was that the New York Rangers seemed to be the front-runners to land (now-former) Los Angeles Kings defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov. According to Pierre LeBrun, they did exactly that and terms are a seven-year deal with a $7M AAV. This gives the Rangers a stalwart defensive defenceman on the left side, though he did play on the right side a lot with the Kings so there's flexibility to his game.
Gavrikov had a nice season with the Kings in 2024-25 with 30 points, 112 shots, 140 blocks, and 50 hits in 82 games played. He skated a career-high 23:05 per game to do it and is going to a Rangers team where Adam Fox is the top option on the blue line. Gavrikov will be used a lot at even strength and on the penalty kill, but it's hard to see him exceeding the 23-ish minutes he just got with Los Angeles. In that sense, expecting more than the 30 points he got is expecting too much. Maybe he has a career year and pushes to 40 points, but this isn't a player who will suddenly explode offensively because he's leaving the Kings.
For now, this seems to leave Brandt Clarke as no worse than the number-4 defenceman for Los Angeles behind Drew Doughty, Mikey Anderson, and Joel Edmundson. There is a very real possibility Clarke moves up to the number-3 defenceman, which could push him to around 20 minutes a game. The team still loves its Doughty-Anderson pair, and they will be the go-to pair for the team, but this opens room elsewhere for Clarke to earn a lot more ice time.
In New York, this likely means Gavrikov on the top pair and Carson Soucy behind him and then a mix of Urho Vaakanainen or prospects on the third pair. As this is being written, it looks like K'Andre Miller is being traded, which is why he's not being included here.
Gavrikov signing is surely going to hurt the Kings defensively and help the Rangers by the same measure, and that's bad news for Darcy Kuemper and good news for Igor Shesterkin.
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