The defenseman is set for a big raise this summer.

• Player Overview
• What We Know
• Comparables
• Projection

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Player Overview

Vladislav Gavrikov was selected in the sixth round of the 2015 NHL Draft, but remained in Russia for a few years after that point. He joined the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019, getting into limited playoff action that year, before taking a full-time roster spot the following season.

Over his first three NHL seasons, Gavrikov steadily grew his role in Columbus. After averaging less than 20 minutes per game in his first two years with the team, he jumped to over 22 minutes per game for the 2022-23 season, and reached a career-high in points with 33.

With Gavrikov on an expiring contract the following season though, he was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings alongside Joonas Korpisalo ahead of the 2023 trade deadline. From there, he signed a two-year extension to remain with the Kings, and played a crucial role in helping to stabilize the team’s blue line.

Gavrikov was tasked with 23 minutes per game this season, which ranked second on the team. He, along with Mikey Anderson, also took on by far the toughest matchups of any defender on the team, per the Frozen Tools player usage chart. At this point, Gavrikov has established himself as one of the NHL’s better shutdown defensemen, and would have a huge impact in any defense group that he’s a part of.

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What We Know

• Given Gavrikov took a two-year contract in 2023 to bet on himself when he could’ve been set for a longer extension, it’s likely that he’ll be seeking a longer-term deal this time around.
• Per James Mirtle, Gavrikov’s asking price could top $8.5M on a maximum-term deal. Mirtle also noted the Kings would like to extend the defenseman.
• Per Arthur Staple, the New York Rangers could look to target Gavrikov in free agency.

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Comparables

Below, we examine what Gavrikov’s deal could look like, based on previous contracts for other defensemen. With Gavrikov turning 30 years old in November, the comparables used will generally be defensemen who were near his age at the time of signing. Note: the age listed in the tables below represent a player’s age by Dec. 31 in the first year of their contract.

8 YEARS

Gavrikov would only be eligible for an eight-year extension if he signs an extension with the Kings, but the contract length remains a possibility.

Below is a table of defensemen who signed around the same age for $8.5M or less, to use as comparables when looking at what Gavrikov could make on a potential eight-year deal.

Player	Age	First Year of Contract	Signing Year P/82	Career P/82	TOI Season	Career TOI	Contract	On $95.5M Cap
Vladislav Gavrikov	30	2025	30 82GP	25 435GP	23:05	21:12
*Oliver Ekman-Larsson	28	2019	42 82GP	41 576GP	23:41	23:39	$8.25M 8 years	$9.67M 8 years
John Carlson	28	2018	68 82GP	45 608GP	24:47	23:00	$8.00M 8 years	$9.61M 8 years
*Brent Seabrook	31	2016	31 82GP	34 763GP	22:11	22:29	$6.88M 8 years	$9.00M 8 years
**Morgan Rielly	28	2022	51 63GP	44 580GP	23:43	21:53	$7.50M 8 years	$8.68M 8 years
*Marc-Edouard Vlasic	31	2018	31 75GP	26 812GP	21:14	22:01	$7.00M 8 years	$8.41M 8 years
*Colton Parayko	29	2022	31 32GP	34 418GP	21:20	21:43	$6.50M 8 years	$7.52M 8 years
**Hampus Lindholm	28	2022	30 61GP	31 589GP	22:32	22:11	$6.50M 8 years	$7.52M 8 years
*Ryan Ellis	28	2019	60 44GP	36 396GP	23:31	19:36	$6.25M 8 years	$7.32M 8 years
*MacKenzie Weeger	29	2023	45 80GP	32 306GP	23:22	19:33	$6.25M 8 years	$7.15M 8 years
*Travis Sanheim	27	2023	32 80GP	28 335GP	22:58	20:18	$6.25M 8 years	$7.15M 8 years
Damon Severson	29	2023	33 81GP	33 647GP	19:57	21:11	$6.25M 8 years	$7.15M 8 years
*Ryan Pulock	28	2022	25 56GP	35 290GP	22:27	21:03	$6.15M 8 years	$7.12M 8 years
Adam Pelech	27	2021	21 56GP	20 303GP	21:03	19:16	$5.75M 8 years	$6.74M 8 years
**Gustav Forsling	28	2024	42 63GP	33 397GP	21:48	20:27	$5.75M 8 years	$6.24M 8 years

Looking towards the lower end of the table, there’s a solid argument that Gavrikov should hit the $7M mark. He had higher numbers than Adam Pelech in every category, and Pelech’s cap hit stands at roughly $6.75M when adjusted to a $95.5M salary cap. Then while Gavrikov had lower career production than Ryan Pulock ($7.1M adjusted cap hit), his signing year production and ice time were a bit higher than Pulock’s, while their career ice time was relatively comparable. Comparing Gavrikov’s numbers to Damon Severson ($7.15M adjusted cap hit), while Severson had higher production and similar career ice time, Gavrikov had a much higher usage in his signing year.

Another really good comp would be Travis Sanheim ($7.15M adjusted cap hit). Sanheim had slightly higher production, while Gavrikov had slightly higher ice time, but the players had similar stats on paper overall.

There are also comparables pointing to a deal potentially coming in quite a bit higher. Gavrikov’s production was comaparable to Brent Seabrook ($9M adjusted cap hit) in his signing year, and he had higher signing year ice time, though Seabrook did have higher production and usage over his career. Then with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, the two players had almost identical production, and though Vlasic had the higher career usage, Gavrikov had the higher signing year ice time.

The one thing that could possibly come into play keeping Gavrikov below that mark though is that both Seabrook and Vlasic both had close to twice as many career games under their belts as opposed to Gavrikov. As a result, there was a much longer track record of each of those defenders taking on a big role, while Gavrikov has really only had a bigger role across the last four seasons. Plus, considering other comps around that range like Morgan Rielly had both better production and higher usage than Gavrikov, he likely doesn’t have as strong of an argument to exceed an $8M cap hit on an eight-year deal.

That said, there are two other comps around adjusted $7.5M cap hits to look towards, in Colton Parayko and Hampus Lindholm. Gavrikov had similar signing year production, and slightly higher signing year usage, though both Parayko and Lindholm had slightly higher production and ice time over their respective careers.

The one factor to point out with Gavrikov though is that he’s a little bit older than a lot of the comps lower down the table. As a result, there’d be a little bit more risk of decline in his case, as opposed to the defenders who signed around 27, 28, or 29 years old.

Based on the comps, if Gavrikov does seek a deal around $8.5M per year, it would look to be an overpayment if a team bit at that number. That said, it’s reasonable to think his value could land somewhere between $7M and $7.5M on an eight-year deal, especially using the likes of Parayko, Lindholm, Sanheim, Severson, Pulock and Pelech as comps.

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7 YEARS

If Gavrikov hits free agency, he’d be most likely to command a seven-year deal. Based on comparables below, he’d still be expected fall into a fairly similar range in terms of a cap hit, compared to if he extended for eight years in Los Angeles.

Player	Age	First Year of Contract	Signing Year P/82	Career P/82	TOI Season	Career TOI	Contract	On $95.5M Cap
Vladislav Gavrikov	30	2025	30 82GP	25 435GP	23:05	21:12
Dougie Hamilton	28	2021	63 55GP	46 607GP	22:43	20:27	$9.00M 7 years	$10.55M 7 years
Alex Pietrangelo	30	2020	61 70GP	49 758GP	24:11	24:38	$8.80M 7 years	$10.31M 7 years
Keith Yandle	30	2016	47 82GP	46 661GP	19:58	21:10	$6.35M 7 years	$8.31M 7 years
*Ryan McDonagh	30	2019	38 63GP	37 530GP	23:20	23:30	$6.75M 7 years	$7.91M 7 years
**Devon Toews	30	2024	52 81GP	48 315GP	25:06	23:01	$7.25M 7 years	$7.87M 7 years
Brandon Montour	30	2024	41 66GP	40 520GP	23:27	21:04	$7.14M 7 years	$7.75M 7 years
*Justin Faulk	28	2019	35 82GP	38 559GP	22:25	23:16	$6.50M 7 years	$7.62M 7 years
Torey Krug	29	2020	66 61GP	66 61GP	20:29	20:19	$6.50M 7 years	$7.62M 7 years
Brady Skjei	30	2024	48 80GP	33 609GP	21:17	20:38	$7.00M 7 years	$7.60M 7 years
**Shea Theodore	30	2025	76 53GP	51 503GP	22:05	21:24	$7.43M 7 years	$7.43M 7 years
*Jonas Brodin	28	2021	33 69GP	22 555GP	21:33	21:50	$6.00M 7 years	$7.03M 7 years

We do see that Gavrikov doesn’t compare overly well to the top comparables on the table. He obviously wouldn’t fall into the range of Dougie Hamilton and Alex Pietrangelo ($10M+ adjusted cap hits), while both Ryan McDonagh and Devon Toews both had higher production and usage. Meanwhile, Brandon Montour had much higher production than Gavrikov, with fairly similar ice time. Even with Justin Faulk ($7.6M adjusted cap hit), Gavrikov had lower production, and while he did have slightly higher signing year ice time, he had lower career usage. So even if Gavrikov may not be wildly far off, his value would still likely come in below these comps.

Then between Torey Krug, Brady Skjei and Shea Theodore, we see cases where Gavrikov may have had higher usage, but also much lower production. Even using Jonas Brodin as a comp ($7M adjusted cap hit), the production was fairly similar, and while Gavrikov had the higher signing year ice time, Brodin had higher career usage.

As a result, it’s difficult to say that Gavrikov should be definitively above a lot of these comps listed, even towards the bottom of the table. While he’s likely somewhere in this range, his value still likely falls towards the lower end of these comps, in the area of $7M to $7.5M.

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6 YEARS

There’s also a less likely scenario where Gavrikov could end up signing a shorter contract. We have seen quite a few defenders around the same age earn six-year deals, with comparables below.

That said, it seems much more likely that he’d be able to get a maximum-term extension, and based on a lot of the comparables, Gavrikov aligns more closely to those who signed for seven or eight years, as opposed to six years or less.

Player	Age	First Year of Contract	Signing Year P/82	Career P/82	TOI Season	Career TOI	Contract	On $95.5M Cap
Vladislav Gavrikov	30	2025	30 82GP	25 435GP	23:05	21:12
**Neal Pionk	30	2025	46 69GP	39 536GP	22:04	21:47	$7.00M 6 years	$7.00M 6 years
*Nate Schmidt	28	2019	39 84GP	24 284GP	22:14	18:08	$5.95M 6 years	$6.97M 6 years
Matt Roy	29	2024	21 81GP	24 369GP	20:54	19:28	$5.75M 6 years	$6.24M 6 years
Brett Pesce	30	2024	15 70GP	26 627GP	20:17	21:05	$5.50M 6 years	$5.97M 6 years
**Marcus Pettersson	29	2025	30 49GP	25 493GP	22:09	18:50	$5.50M 6 years	$5.50M 6 years
Nikita Zadorov	29	2024	22 75GP	19 642GP	17:26	18:05	$5.00M 6 years	$5.43M 6 years
Ryan Graves	28	2023	27 78GP	27 302GP	19:57	18:59	$4.50M 6 years	$5.15M 6 years

In terms of usage, Gavrikov was playing more minutes than just about any player listed, and also had better production than a many of them.

Even with Nate Schmidt ($7M adjusted cap hit), Gavrikov was similar in terms of career production, and while he did have lower signing year production, he also had slightly higher signing year ice time, and much higher career ice time.

The one comp where he may not compare as well against is Neal Pionk, who signed his extension with the Winnipeg Jets earlier this year. At the same time, there’s an argument that Pionk took less to stay with the Jets than he likely could’ve made in free agency, and I had his expected value at $7.5M per year on a seven-year contract.

Especially if Gavrikov does head to free agency, it’s likely that he’d be paid at a similar rate to the seven-year comps, likely somewhere exceeding $7M per year.

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Projection

Gavrikov is most likely to earn a seven-year contract in free agency, or an eight-year deal if he re-signs in Los Angeles. While there’s a small chance he could end up on a six-year deal instead, it does seem less likely.

The projections for deals between six and eight years are below, with a slightly reduced cap hit if he does sign for eight years with the Kings, given they could offer more total dollars over a slightly longer term.

Term	Projected Cap Hit	Maximum Cap Hit	Minimum Cap Hit
8 years	$7.25M	$8.00M	$7.00M
7 years	$7.50M	$8.00M	$7.00M
6 years	$7.50M	$8.00M	$7.00M