Ahead of Friday’s NHL trade deadline, which could be make-or-break for Rob Blake, neither hide nor hair has been seen of the Kings general manager publicly this season.
The Hall of Fame defenseman turned embroiled executive spoke very briefly at the draft in June and again via teleconference before October’s season opener, since eschewing opportunities and denying requests from multiple outlets for even a brief audience.
In the final year of his contract, the possibly penultimate season of captain Anže Kopitar’s career and a campaign that multiple Kings singled out as a pivotal one in their stagnated build, Blake finds himself at the most critical impasse of a tenure that began in 2017 and has yet to produce a playoff series victory or a star draft pick.
Pending free agents: Gavrikov leads the list
In terms of outgoing assets, players with expiring contracts always top the list and while the Kings have some supporting players headed toward free agency, like rugged winger Tanner Jeannot, the spotlight illuminates versatile defender Vladislav Gavrikov. Acquired two years ago at the trade deadline from Columbus, he and agent Daniel Milstein signed a two-year pact that had the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl product in line for a sky-high pile of rubles as the NHL’s cap was set to rise significantly in the coming seasons. Gavrikov has done his part as well, especially this season when he’s returned to his off side – he played right defense in Russia early in his career – and formed a Herculean shutdown pairing with Mikey Anderson.
Gavrikov recently dropped Milstein, a very popular agent among Russian NHL’ers (most notably Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy of Tampa Bay), and went with an even bigger hitter, Creative Artists Agency’s Pat Brisson. Typically, a midstream switch of representation bodes poorly for a club’s chances at re-signing a player, but given Brisson’s deep connections to Blake, Kings team president Luc Robitaille and special advisor Marc Bergevin, the shift likely raised the Kings’ chances of retaining Gavrikov and a cost yet to be determined.
Potential trade chips: Brandt Clarke could turn heads
Brandt Clarke began the year by scoring at a rate high enough to maintain his position atop the Kings’ scoring leaderboard for defensemen despite a precipitous decline in his usage, culminating in his baffling demotion to the team’s eighth defenseman. That development was tough to reconcile with his status as 2021’s eighth overall pick or an emergent force on the blue line just a mere weeks earlier. As he was scratched for the first time, at the end of January, trade rumors proliferated with Blake and company squashing them through back channels. This is, however, the same front office that said publicly that it was determined to refurbish Cal Petersen and better integrate Pierre-Luc Dubois, relative instants before severing ties with both in regret-laden, cost-cutting trades.
Clarke’s entry-level cap hit combined with the Kings’ existing space (deadline cap hits are prorated) wouldn’t be enough to bring back a huge-ticket player alone, but salary retention and other creative overtures might be able to turn the promising defender into an elite forward, preferably a right-shooing one, for a team that’s lacked scoring pop both five-on-five and on the power play. The Kings have to be careful though, as they’ve already squandered assets in various areas, but most notably on right defense, during the Blake era. They’ve also seen all three of their top-10 picks since 2017 –– league-minimum player Alex Turcotte and the inconsistent Quinton Byfield are the other two –– become less than clear-cut cornerstones so far.
Is help on the way?
Grains of sand in the hourglass are vanishing quickly for the Kings, with Kopitar, top-paid defenseman Drew Doughty and starting goalie Darcy Kuemper combining to have spent 106 years on this earth, in addition to ever-louder ticks on the clock of Blake’s contract. After parting ways with power-play savvy skaters over the past two offseasons –– Gabe Vilardi, Sean Durzi, Arthur Kaliyev, Viktor Arvidsson and Dubois, for example –– the Kings’ power play has been predictably awful this season. Apparently no longer concerned with balancing out their defensive pairings in terms of right and left shots, the Kings now will turn their attention to their lack of right-handed-shooting forwards, particularly following the departure of Arvidsson last summer.
The Nashville Predators might have some buyers’ remorse on their July 1 shopping spree, which included Jonathan Marchessault, a right shot with extensive playoff experience (including a Conn Smythe Trophy and a Stanley Cup). He’s a Brisson client and could fit into the Kings’ current and near-term cap situation neatly. Pittsburgh’s Rickard Rakell is another potentially available right shot, capable of playing anywhere up front, with term and seasoning. Among left shots and rentals alike, Chicago’s Ryan Donato could be appealing particularly given his recent outburst of 16 points in 10 games.
The Kings could also seek to add to their group of bottom-six forwards, to which they recalled Samuel Helenius from the minors on Wednesday, or possibly augment their goaltending depth given the recent struggles of David Rittich and recent injury history of Kuemper.