{"id":70777,"date":"2025-12-15T05:40:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70777\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:40:17","slug":"vladislav-gavrikov-thriving-after-being-rangers-pivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70777\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladislav Gavrikov thriving after being Rangers’ pivot"},"content":{"rendered":"

As longtime franchise staple Chris Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba prepare to make their returns to the Garden on Monday night, one of the players brought in with the salary cap savings generated by their trades has established himself on the Rangers first defensive pairing.<\/p>\n

Free-agent signing Vladislav Gavrikov has been playing some of the best hockey of his NHL career even with regular partner Adam Fox sidelined over the past couple of weeks with an upper-body injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled, obviously, he\u2019s been a big part of our team, on both sides of the puck,\u201d Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after Saturday\u2019s 5-4 overtime win over the Canadiens<\/a>. \u201cObviously we were aware of his defensive capabilities, and that was a big reason why he was attractive for us. But what he\u2019s produced offensively for us \u2014 not just the goals he\u2019s scored, but the way he\u2019s active off the offensive blue line, his ability to transition the puck and things of that nature to help us generate offense both off the rush and in the zone, I think it\u2019s been a really welcomed addition, and he\u2019s had a great start to the season for us.<\/p>\n

\"ColeVladislav Gavrikov skates during the Rangers\u2019 Dec. 13 game. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was paired with Foxy, obviously we really liked that pair. We thought, our hope was when we signed him, that he would be complementary to Foxy. And that certainly has played itself out here in the early part of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Gavrikov, who was signed away from the Kings on a seven-year deal worth $49 million<\/a> in free agency, logged a season-high 27:56 of ice time Saturday night as the Rangers improved to 2-0-2 in their past four games at MSG entering home games on back-to-back nights against the Ducks and the Canucks.<\/p>\n

Trouba was traded to the Ducks in a cost-cutting move last December, and Kreider rejoined him in Anaheim in a separate trade in June. <\/p>\n

The Ducks had gotten off to a strong 19-10-2 start to the season before dropping the first two legs of a three game Metropolitan-area set against the Islanders on Thursday and the Devils on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness trip,\u201d Kreider said before the loss on Long Island. \u201cObviously, I had an extended summer to let [the trade] sink in and certain brush points that allowed me to adjust \u2026 I think the biggest thing is how great the organization has been, how great the players have been. It\u2019s definitely made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran winger J.T. Miller also was acquired by the Rangers from Vancouver ahead of last year\u2019s trade deadline, and he was named as Trouba\u2019s successor as captain in the offseason.<\/p>\n

\"HockeyVladislav Gavrikov (44) watches for the puck during the Rangers\u2019 Dec. 10 game against the Blackhawks. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Miller scored twice, including the OT winner, Saturday night against the Habs to give him five goals and 11 points in 11 games following a shaky start to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled for him, I know what it means to him for this team to have success, and he takes a lot of ownership for it,\u201d Sullivan said of Miller. \u201cSo this early part of the season I feel like he\u2019s had moments when he\u2019s played extremely well for us and the puck hasn\u2019t gone in the net for him.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had a really strong game [Saturday] obviously, and the type of goals that he scored, for me, are prototypical J.T. Miller hockey. One is at the blue paint, where he plays his power game, and then on the overtime winner, that one-timer is a missile. That\u2019s a goal-scorer\u2019s goal and that\u2019s what he\u2019s capable of. \u2026 So I\u2019m sure scoring a couple of goals, he\u2019s going to feel good about that, as he should. He\u2019s such an important player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As longtime franchise staple Chris Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba prepare to make their returns to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11810,36276,36277,9,11,10,541,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-70777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-chris-kreider","10":"tag-jacob-trouba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-rangers","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}