LA Kings

Well, LA Kings general manager Rob Blake has shocked us all. Late Tuesday night, the Kings did the unthinkable. They traded Jonathan Quick, a conditional 2023 first-round pick, and a 2024 third-round pick, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for left-shot defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.

From a pure performance standpoint, it’s a win for LA. They fill two big holes in the lineup while only giving up two draft picks and shedding Quick’s salary in the process giving Blake the opportunity to make another move. But it’s the sentimental side that stings, and perhaps what could’ve been that hurts even more.

Farewell Jonathan

Shipping off a franchise legend in Jonathan Quick, the backbone of the team for 15+ seasons, a player that won two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe trophy, who also leads the franchise in games played by a goalie, wins, and shutouts is a tough pill to swallow.

Unfortunately, he’s been anything but himself this year, posting career lows in almost all categories. But this should be on Rob Blake more than Quick. Blake is the GM who signed an unproven Cal Petersen to a questionable three-year $15 million deal. With Petersen unable to assume the throne as the starter for the Kings going back to last season, the 37-year-old Quick had been asked to play a much more prominent role than LA probably wanted. After the smooth departure of longtime captain Dustin Brown last season, seeing Quick leave in this fashion feels like a punch in the gut. But we press on…we have to.

Joonas Korpisalo

Goaltending was the number one issue in LA. As well as Pheonix Copley had been performing with the Kings, he’s been shaky at times. Joonas Korpisalo is an improvement and should be considered the team’s number-one netminder moving forward.

For all goalies with at least ten games played this season, Korpisalo ranks fifth in the NHL in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes during 5v5 play, according to MoneyPuck.com. Not bad considering he’s playing for a team in the “Bedard sweepstakes.”

He owns a career .903 save percentage and 3.06 goals-against average and three shutouts in 210 games. But more importantly, it’s the playoffs where he really shines. In nine career playoff games, the 28-year-old out of Finland possesses a .941 save percentage and a 1.90 goals-against average. Including, an 85(!) save performance in a 3-2 overtime loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2020 playoffs, which is the most saves recorded in any regular season or playoff game in NHL history.

It would’ve been a tall task for the LA Kings to go on a playoff run with Copley and Quick as their only options in net. With Korpisalo, head coach Todd McLellan and the rest of the team have an opportunity to make some noise come the postseason. But there will be a ton of pressure on Joonas to perform for the price paid.

Vladislav Gavrikov

The other player coming over to the LA Kings is 6’3″ 221-pound left-shot defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. The 27-year-old out of Russia is known for his stay-at-home type of play and use of size along the boards. He’s not the impactful player Jakob Chychrun would’ve been for the Kings, but he comes much cheaper and is a slight upgrade over what they can ice right now.

In 256 career games, Gavrikov has 15 goals and 58 assists with a -23 rating. He leads the Blue Jackets this season in ice time with 22:20 minutes a game and two overtime winners. Coming over to a team that is known for their shot suppression, allowing only 28.4 shots per game (5th in the NHL), Vladislav should eat up a lot of minutes in a potential top-four role in LA.

I get the sense Gavrikov would most likely slide into Sean Durzi‘s spot on the second pair with Matt Roy, moving Durzi back over to where he’s more comfortable on the right side with Alex Edler on the third pair and have Sean Walker as the seventh defenseman moving forward. But for me, I see this deal as an upgrade over Edler.

It’s been rough watching Edler lumber up and down the ice this season. He gets exposed in the transition game, and it’d be a tough sell to have him make up for a lot of the unfortunate errors Durzi allows that the steady Roy is able to make up for. But we shall see how McLellan lines them up.

Moving forward

It remains to be seen how this will impact the morale of the team going forward. Jonathan Quick was beloved in the locker room, especially by his longtime teammates Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. The trio had been through countless battles together and reports came out mentioning how much this affected them on their flight home from Winnipeg.

As I stated earlier, the Kings get better with this move. They upgraded their goaltending and added some much-needed physicality to the blueline. But I remain conflicted over whether this puts them above a team like the Edmonton Oilers who made a huge splash themselves by acquiring Mattias Ekholm from Nashville.

After this deal, Rob Blake will have $5.3M in cap space available to him come Friday’s trade deadline. If he really thinks this team has a shot to go far in the playoffs, he should utilize the rest of that space to perhaps bring in another impactful left-shot defenseman, or a veteran forward to help with the depth up front.

Featured Image Credit: (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)

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6 thoughts on “LA Kings: Thoughts on the trade with Columbus”

  1. I’ve read hundreds of comments about how Blake did Quick wrong. Why didn’t they let him retire a King, it’s not an upgrde, why didn’t they try harder for Chychrun etc…

    This is a business. The goal is to win the Stanley Cup. As mentioned in the article, Quick has career low numbers and he wasn’t going to get better. Father time and injuries have caught up with JQ.

    Kings fans will never forget Quick and what he’s meant to the Kings. But… even the greats get traded. Gretzky, Ruth, Favre, Lindros, Kane et al.

    Let’s support our Kings on their march to the Cup!

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  2. Smart move- all will be forgotten if Kings go far in the playoffs!!
    Quick supposedly did mot confirm to Kings that he will be retiring at the end of this season. If he would confirm like Brown did , they would not trade him. However, if he would not retire Kings would lose him this summer as UFA without any compensation,
    So this move was necessary and very smart considering all the above circumstances.

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  3. Father Time gets all the greats. It was hard to watch such a Kings warrior and clutch performer like Quick struggle but he did & it hurt the team. Team always comes first and with performance, asset minded organizations and salary cap implications, everyone is tradable. Even the Great One Wayne Gretzky! 🤷🏻‍♂️

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  4. Except, Cal had about the same stats than Quick did, but Quick couldn’t be sent down, even when he began to play well, there was no room to bring him up. He wants to play another year, so what, the team is supposed to wave goodbye after the playoffs? Cause he wasn’t coming back here. Blake did the only thing he could, which was giving him up in a trade.

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