Andrei Kuzmenko
The Los Angeles Kings made only one trade at the NHL Trade Deadline and at the time seemed like nothing more than a low-risk, high-reward move. They would trade with the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Andrei Kuzmenko, who after an excellent rookie season, struggled to match the production.
However, general manager Rob Blake knew something that the rest of the league didn't and Kuzmenko was one of the best players down the stretch for the Kings. In 22 regular season games, he had 17 points, which included five power-play assists.
He kept the production up on the power play in the playoffs with three power-play goals in the series against the Edmonton Oilers and finished the series averaging a point per game.
While Gavrikov will likely have a number of teams willing to offer a big contract, it is hard to imagine Kuzmenko would fall into that same category, even with how he finished the season. However, the Kings got to see firsthand how well he fit and this is an instance where they probably offer the biggest contract and he returns.