Vladislav Gavrikov & Kyle Burroughs talk former, and new, teammate Andrei Kuzmenko

Forward Andrei Kuzmenko is coming to a new team here in Los Angeles, but he won’t be a new guy to everyone.

Kuzmenko was teammates with defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in the KHL when both were earlier in their careers. During the 2018-19 season, Gavrikov’s final season playing in Russia, the two played together with SKA St. Petersburg on a team that collected 103 points and finished second in its division during the regular season.

“I played with him a little bit back then and with the national team too," Gavrikov said after today's practice. "He's a skill player, he's pretty fast, hopefully going to be great addition for us."

After that season, Gavrikov joined the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, appearing in two games, before he began his first full NHL season the following fall. For Kuzmenko, his path was a little bit different. 2018-19 was Kuzmenko’s first season with SKA, also skating alongside then Kings draft picks Nikolai Prokhorkin and Alexander Dergachyov, before he played four straight seasons with the club.

Kuzmenko went on to have three consecutive season with 30+ points before he broke out with 20 goals and 53 points from 45 games played in 2021-22. Then, he signed with the Vancouver Canucks and exploded onto the scene with 39 goals and 74 points in his first full NHL season. One of his teammates with the Canucks? Current Kings defenseman Kyle Burroughs.

“He’s a high-skill guy, I think you can watch his highlight tape and get excited about that and we’re getting a really good person too,” Burroughs said. “When he first came to Vancouver, he didn’t speak a lot of English but his personality shined through that and as he spoke more and more English, you could see his humor and I really enjoyed going to the rink with him. We’re excited to see that skill and what he can bring to the team.”

As a player, Burroughs mentions the skill and that’s certainly a factor when it comes to a player who nearly buried 40 goals in a season.

If you watch that highlight reel, though, a ton of those goals came from in and around the net, especially on the power play, when he played a netfront role on that Canucks team. Deflections, tap-ins around the crease and skill plays without a ton of space were regularly seen from his time in Vancouver.

“Any time you slot him in front of that net, the netfront area, he’s produced,” Burroughs said. “He’s obviously bounced around, Calgary to Philly, but it’s a spot for us to have him in. You can park him there and he can create offense there, I think that’s proven. It’s something that we’re looking forward to.”

For the Kings, that netfront presence could be important in more ways than one.

Looking specifically at power-play situations, the Kings have struggled to find a consistent netfront option this season, on a power play that has simply not been good enough. Entering the deadline, the Kings rank 30th in power-play percentage and they’re the lowest ranked current playoff team by a considerable margin. In terms of overall goalscoring, only Columbus ranks lower among the 16 teams currently in a playoff spot.

That’s not to say Kuzmenko is an instant solution. At times, the game he’s brought could be exactly that but it’s also his third time being traded in the last 12 months, moving from Vancouver to Calgary to Philadelphia. He’s found instant offensive success in all three places and the Kings, at this time, only have him locked in through the end of this season. But there’s no guarantees.

Still though, as a defenseman who played regularly against Kuzmenko in practice back in British Columbia, Burroughs knows Kuzmenko is a shifty customer. Watching the way he got open in power-play situations, he was slippery in and around the net and had that ability to lose a man in front and make defenders look uncomfortable. He’s not the biggest player to play that role but he’s crafty.

“When you're in practice, you don't want to look silly, “Burroughs said. “It's kind of like Q, who flies up and down, he's so big and fast, but he slides both ways. Kuzy kind of has that same thing where he's not afraid to cut back and make you look a little silly.”

In having Burroughs and Gavrikov here, at least Kuzmenko not coming into a completely unfamiliar situation.

Deadline deals can be difficult, because the players acquired are expected to come in already at their best, while learning new systems, structure, coaches, teammates, the list goes on. For the Kings, who sit third in the Pacific Division, currently on a five-game losing streak, they don’t have time for getting up to speed. They need the guys who have been here to play better and now the one player coming in to hit the ground moving full speed.

Hopefully, having Gavrikov and Burroughs here, two guys he knows, can help with that.

“We'll try to help him in any way, as much as we can,” Gavrikov added. “During the trade deadline, it's hard to go to a new team. I've done it too, personally, so we'll try to help him. I think we have a great group of guys, we're all together, so we'll take care of that."

Burroughs, who joined the team over the summer, added that the Kings were an extremely welcoming group when he was acquired from San Jose and personally, that helped him to assimilate quickly.

For Kuzmenko, the plan currently is for him to fly into Los Angeles tonight. He'll get, more or less, a crash course in the LA Kings tomorrow morning from the coaching staff and the hope from General Manager Rob Blake is that he could play tomorrow night against the Blues. Not exactly sure where or how much on night one, perhaps some of that could be situational, but we could see the debut come tomorrow evening. More from Blake to come later on today, recapping his 20-minute availability with the full video when available + key points, notes and quotes following the trade deadline.