Colin Stephenson: Rangers' Vladislav Gavrikov's goal scoring one of few pleasant surprises
Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov sets against the Devils in the first period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Not enough has gone right for the Rangers this season, obviously. They haven’t scored enough. They haven’t won enough home games. They’ve had critical, and untimely injuries.
But even in such a disappointing season, there have been a few things that did go well, and should serve as building blocks for next season. One is the evolution of Vladislav Gavrikov from veteran defensive defenseman to goal-scorer.
Gavrikov, 30, has been one of the most pleasant surprises for the Rangers this season. He came to New York as a free agent last summer with 29 goals on his resume, in seven NHL seasons. But entering Tuesday’s game against the Devils at Madison Square Garden he had 14 goals, which is way more than the Rangers were counting on when they signed him.
“I don't know that Vlad is a different player [than the Rangers thought they were getting],’’ coach Mike Sullivan said at Tuesday’s morning skate. “I just think he has a dimension that we've discovered, that has helped us on the offensive side.
“We don't want him to become a different player,’’ Sullivan said. “We want him to defend well. That's the foundation of his game, and that's where he excels at. And so when he defends hard for us, and adds offensive dimension to his game, he's even more effective as far as helping us win. I think he's had a terrific year for us.’’
As Sullivan sees it, Gavrikov’s evolution into a goal-scoring threat is a bonus. The whole idea of signing him last summer, the coach said, was to have him be a stay-at-home partner for Adam Fox on the top defense pair.
“We thought he'd be a real good partner for Foxy, which it’s turned out he has been,’’ Sullivan said. “You try to think things through, and figure out who might have complementary skill sets, in trying to… make some predictions on who you think might work [together]. We do it with line combinations. We do it with defense pairs. Sometimes they make a whole lot of sense on paper, but they don't actually work out, for whatever reason.
“But this one, in our estimation, has worked out. We think that pair has been excellent.’’
With Gavrikov and Fox together on the ice in 5-on-5 situations, the Rangers have had more shot attempts (766 to 634), more scoring chances (353-259), more high-danger chances (161-89), more expected goals (36.9 to 26.25) and more goals (26-22) than their opponents.
But that part wasn’t a surprise. The goal scoring by Gavrikov was.
Even to Gavrikov himself.
“Probably I never thought that before this season,’’ Gavrikov told Newsday last week when asked if he thought he’d score so many goals.
He chalked it up to “getting opportunities more than usual,’’ and noted he’d never played on the power play before this year.
When he scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Dallas on Dec. 2, it was his fifth goal of the season – as many as he had all last season with the L.A. Kings – in just the Rangers’ 28th game. Afterward, goalie Igor Shesterkin, who played against Gavrikov growing up in Russia and was his teammate on the Russia team that won the silver medal in the 2015 World Junior Championships, said he knew all along Gavrikov had offensive talent.
“I always knew he was an amazing defenseman,’’ Shesterkin said that night. “We played against each other when we growing up, and he scored on me a lot.’’
Gavrikov, though, said he changed his game when he got to the NHL with Columbus in 2019.
“Probably I did a bit, because I started playing, obviously in bottom pair, right? And didn't have a lot of minutes at the start,’’ he said. “And then you have to change your game accordingly. Because if you're playing, like, 10 to 13 minutes [per game], you know you cannot just be involved that much in the offense. You have to do your direct job, which is playing good ‘D.’ ’’
But now that he’s established himself as a top-pair, big minutes (team-high average of 23 minutes, 47 seconds) player, Gavrikov knows he needs to contribute at the offensive end of the ice, as much as at the defensive end.
The question is, now that he’s done it once, is he a double-digit goal-scorer going forward?
“I don't know the answer to that,’’ Sullivan said. “What I can tell you is that I think Vladdy has good instincts offensively. You can see it with how he moves, and… the timing of when he jumps into certain areas of the ice, windows of opportunity. Windows of opportunity open and close out there fast, so timing of getting to certain spots on the ice is an important element of being a good offensive player.’’
Gavrikov has shown himself to be that offensive player this season. And in a negative season, that’s a positive development, and one the Rangers weren’t expecting.
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Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
