Will These Rumored Trades Help the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Vladislav Gavrikov

Gavrikov is in his fourth season with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He was drafted by Columbus in the 6th round of the 2015 NHL draft with the 159th overall pick. He is a big defenseman that can play a lot of minutes.

This season he is averaging 22:31 of ice time and has been used a ton due to the injury of Zach Werenski.

One drawback of Gavrikov’s game is he rarely hits for a guy who is 6’3, 213 Lbs.  The other is that he might not be that good.

He only has 38 hits this season, which would put him 4th in hits among Toronto defensemen. The main reason for adding him would be for added depth and the number of minutes he can play. With nine points in 37 games, Toronto won’t be relying on him for points.

He is left handed, doesn’t hit much, and has horrible numbers.  Even discounting the numbers as being caused by having to play on Columbus, and likely in situations he shouldn’t be deployed in, there doesn’t seem to be much to recommend Gavrikov to the Leafs.

They have a ton of depth players, and there is no way that Timothy Liljegre, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie or Morgan Rielly are coming out of the lineup for him.  In the case of injury, the Leafs would turn to Conor Timmins, and would have Gavrikov competing with Jamie Benn and Carl Dahlstrom for depth minutes.

Considering that Columbus would probably like to turn him into at least a second-rounder, I doubt the Leafs would have interest.