Chychrun, Quick among the latest to switch teams
Kings move veteran goaltender to Blue Jackets for Gavrikov and Korpisalo
After a furious rush to beat the clock in 2022, National Hockey League general managers are acting early and often to jockey for the top players available or stockpile future assets in advance of the trade deadline this year.
Following nearly a dozen trades getting done Tuesday, a handful more with playoff implications were completed Wednesday, with defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado filling a void and divisionleading Carolina making another low-risk move in an effort to prepare for a tough road through the loaded Eastern Conference.
“There’s been a lot of phone calls, not a lot of sleep and a lot of activity the last few days,” Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen said Wednesday after trading defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to Los Angeles. “I expect that to continue until Friday at 3 p.m.”
Columbus got two high draft picks from the Kings, along with veteran goaltender Jonathan Quick, the top candidate to be on the move again — flipped to a contender, and there are plenty in need of help in net. Vegas, with starter Logan Thompson on the shelf with a long-term injury, would fit the bill after Kekalainen said he’s “going to try to do the right thing” for Quick, a respected veteran who has won the Stanley Cup twice.
The reigning champion Avalanche, who want to get back atop hockey’s mountain, acquired centre Lars Eller from the Washington Capitals for a 2025 second-round pick.
After buying low on underachieving winger Jesse Puljujarvi, the Hurricanes made another underthe-radar pickup Wednesday by getting defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere from Arizona for a 2026 third-round pick.
“Shayne is a smooth-skating, puck-moving defenceman,” Carolina GM Don Waddell said.
He’s not the only Coyotes defenceman moving. The much-anticipated trading of Jakob Chychrun finally happened with the 24-yearold getting dealt to the Ottawa Senators for a conditional first-round draft pick this year, a conditional second-round pick in 2024 and a second-round pick in 2026.
Ducks defenceman John Klingberg is among the other big candidates to change places. Anaheim is keeping Klingberg out of game action for trade-related reasons.
The Flyers chose the opposite approach, with pending free agent winger James van Riemsdyk and defenceman Justin Braun — perhaps their top trade chips — in the lineup against the New York Rangers, who will get Patrick Kane on the ice Thursday after acquiring him from Chicago.
New York adding Kane and prolific scoring winger Vladimir Tarasenko, Boston adding size, toughness and depth in defenceman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from Washington, New Jersey stocking up with big winger Timo Meier, Tampa Bay giving up the farm for Tanner Jeannot, 25, and Toronto adding six new players over the past two weeks has only upped the ante in the East, which has the top six teams in the NHL.
Watching from his seat now as a seller with his team last in the league, Kekalainen looks around the East and admired his colleagues for going all-in.
“I like the approach,” he said. “You do everything you can in the year where you feel like you have a chance to win the Cup. That’s what we’re all here for.”
The Los Angeles Kings achieved their goal of adding a quality defenceman near the trade deadline. It came with a heavy cost.
The Kings acquired defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in a trade with Columbus Blue Jackets. In return, Los Angeles sent two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Jonathan Quick, a conditional 2023 firstround draft pick and a third-rounder in 2024.
“Jonathan Quick is a two-time Stanley Cup winner who has been an outstanding goaltender in our league for a long time and this deal provides us with draft capital that will be valuable as we move forward as an organization,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement. “It’s never easy to trade players like Vladislav Gavrikov and Joonas Korpisalo as they have been exceptional Blue Jackets, but given our current position these moves were in our club’s best interest.”
The first-rounder is conditional on the Kings making the playoffs, as expected. If they do not, Columbus gets a second-round pick from L.A. each of the next two drafts as part of the trade completed late Tuesday night and announced Wednesday.
Quick backstopped the Kings to their Cup titles in 2012 and ’14. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2012 after recording three shutouts in 20 starts. He also allowed only seven goals in the sixgame Stanley Cup final victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Quick is in the final season of a 10-year, $58-million (U.S.) contract but had been supplanted as the Kings No. 1 goaltender by Pheonix Copley. It’s unclear if Columbus will keep Quick or flip him to a contender before the trade deadline Friday.
The 37-year old Quick had started three of the past six games. He made 16 saves in last Friday’s 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders to pick up his 370th career win, which surpassed Tom Barrasso for third place on the wins list by a U.S.-born goaltender in National Hockey League history.
He is 11-13-4 on the season with a 3.50 goals-against average, .876 save percentage and one shutout.
Quick — a third-round pick by the Kings in 2005 — also holds the franchise records for goalies in games played (743) and shutouts (57).
Gavrikov has three goals and seven assists in 52 games, but has not played since Feb. 11. He was expected to be dealt last week to the Boston Bruins before that fell through.
Gavrikov was among Columbus’s leaders in ice time. He also is a lefthanded shooter and a quality penalty killer, which are two areas where the Kings have been lacking.
Los Angeles is tied with Vegas for most points in the Pacific Division with 76. The Kings got to the playoffs last season for the first time since 2018 but lost in seven games to Edmonton in the first round. They have not won a post-season series since capturing the Stanley Cup in 2014.
Korpisalo had won three of his past four starts along with posting a .921 save percentage. He made nine starts for the Blue Jackets during the 2020 playoffs.
Copley is 18-4-2 since making his debut Dec. 6. The wins are tied with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy for the most during that span, but Copley’s .899 save percentage is 24th among 31 goalies who have played 18 or more games over the past three-plus months.
Korpisalo’s .915 save percentage since early December is ranked 11th. His overall record this season is 1111-3 with a 3.17 goals-against average and .913 save percentage.
Gavrikov and Korpisalo are also in the final year of their contracts, and are expected to be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
Quick’s trade leaves captain Anze Kopitar and defenceman Drew Doughty as the only remaining players from the Kings’ Stanley Cup-winning teams.