{"id":540002,"date":"2026-04-04T09:17:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540002\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T09:17:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:17:59","slug":"vladislav-gavrikov-finding-a-different-dimension-to-his-game-on-pair-with-adam-fox-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540002\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladislav Gavrikov finding a \u2018different dimension\u2019 to his game on pair with Adam Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off a faceoff play the Rangers believed should\u2019ve been blown dead, Vladislav Gavrikov was beaten by Cole Caufield for the Canadiens\u2019 game-winning goal Thursday night<\/a> at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

It was a skillful move from a young star in the midst of a career season.<\/p>\n

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It was a posterizing moment for the Rangers defenseman.<\/p>\n

Most of Gavrikov\u2019s first season with the Blueshirts has been much more assuring than the aforementioned sequence. He\u2019s exactly the type of defenseman the Rangers wanted as Adam Fox\u2019s partner, valuing defense first and playing a reliable game on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n

The fact that the 30-year-old more than doubled his previous career high in goals and is on pace to set a personal points record has just been an added bonus.<\/p>\n

\"Vladislav<\/p>\n

Vladislav Gavrikov of the New York Rangers holds back Brendan Gallagher of the Montr\u00e9al Canadiens during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 2, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think we\u2019ve discovered a different dimension to his game,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said of Gavrikov, who has 14 goals and 18 assists in 76 games entering the matchup with the Red Wings on Saturday afternoon. \u201cVladi\u2019s core competency is his ability to defend. He\u2019s hard to play against and that was what attracted us to him in the first place. The other element is, with respect to his defensive game, there\u2019s some predictability around his game. So we thought he\u2019d be a really good partner for Foxy, which has turned out he has been. You never really know if that\u2019s going to be the case. You try to think things through and figure out who might have complementary skill sets, and try to make some predictions on who you think might work.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe do with line combinations, we do with defense pairs. Sometimes they make a whole lot of sense on paper, but they don\u2019t actually work out, for whatever reason. This one, in our estimation, has worked out. We think that pair has been excellent \u2026 I just think he has a dimension that we\u2019ve discovered that has helped us on the offensive side. But we don\u2019t want him to become a different player than he already is. We want him to defend well. That, for me, is the foundation of his game, and that\u2019s what he excels at.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he defends hard for us and adds the offensive dimension to his game, he\u2019s even more effective as far as helping us win. I think he\u2019s had a terrific year for us. He\u2019s a real competitive guy. He\u2019s been a great pair for Foxy, and he\u2019s helped us on both sides of the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The underlying numbers of the Gavrikov-Fox pairing indicate they are one of the Rangers\u2019 few success stories this season.<\/p>\n

Despite playing significantly fewer games together \u2014 due to Fox\u2019s missing 27 contests with injuries \u2014 they have still logged a team-high 783:21 of five-on-five minutes in 2025-26 so far. While the gap in games should be considered, Gavrikov and Fox still rank highly among the NHL\u2019s other top defensive pairs.<\/p>\n

\"Defenseman<\/p>\n

Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov of the New York Rangers greets defenseman Adam Fox after Fox scores a goal during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 2, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n

Among 27 defensive pairings with at least 700 five-on-five minutes, their 57.74 expected goals percentage is the fourth best behind only the Lightning\u2019s Darren Raddysh-Janis Moser (60.15), the Hurricanes\u2019 Sean Walker-K\u2019Andre Miller (58.18) and the Avalanche\u2019s Brent Burns-Josh Manson (58.07), per Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n

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Gavrikov and Fox also own the third-lowest expected goals against at 28.49. Only the Senators\u2019 Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub (27.87) and the Golden Knights\u2019 Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore (25.62) own a lower xGA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the offensive side of it speaks for itself,\u201d Sullivan said of his top D pair after an optional practice Friday. \u201cI think when they\u2019re committed to defending \u2014 and they\u2019re both very capable in that aspect of the game. I think Vlad is elite defending when he\u2019s committed to defend. And Foxy, I think his ability to defend flies under the radar because everybody looks at the offensive side of this game. But we believe that Foxy is very capable of defending. He\u2019s hockey strong in the puck battles. He uses his brain and his stick skills to win pucks, and he\u2019s competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when those guys are at their best, they\u2019re committed to defend. Their offense always seems to speak for itself. Those are the conversations that we have with them a lot, just reinvesting in that commitment to play defense. And when they do that, they\u2019re a very effective defense pair. They\u2019re excellent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our hope when we signed Vladi, that we could find a partner for Foxy that would be complementary, that could hopefully set up Foxy for success. And I think that has actually turned out to be the case, that they\u2019ve become a very good pair on both sides of the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off a faceoff play the Rangers believed should\u2019ve been blown dead, Vladislav Gavrikov was beaten by Cole Caufield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[1503,974,971,33201,61825,5,189,5788,21,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,3358,33,2099],"class_list":{"0":"post-540002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-adam-fox","9":"tag-brendan-gallagher","10":"tag-cole-caufield","11":"tag-defensive-game","12":"tag-foxy","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-lightning","15":"tag-madison-square-garden","16":"tag-montreal-canadiens","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-rangers","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkrangers","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-rangers","23":"tag-red-wings","24":"tag-the-rangers","25":"tag-vladislav-gavrikov"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116345695490739960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}