Flyers Defenseman Linked To Kings To Fill Hole

The Los Angeles Kings' defence is going to look a bit different next season as Vladislav Gavrikov will be testing free agency and it's not likely Alex Elder will be back. That means that the Kings will have to find some replacements for the left side. Though the team should have at least four capable right-shot defencemen and one can slide over, this still leaves a top-four role to fill.

The Philadelphia Flyers are headed into a rebuild that they don't know if it will take two years, five years, or eight years. Rumors of trading a bunch of the key contributors from the past few seasons indicates it will take at least five years, meaning it makes sense for them to move on from better players whose deals end before that. Ivan Provorov is one of those players.

Provorov is one of the Flyers' top defencemen and has struggled over the past couple of seasons. It is very clear that he needs a change in scenery and being acquired by the talented, young Kings could really help change his career trajectory. The Kings would get a solid top-four defenceman who will likely pick up his play in a new home. The Kings should have a bit of cap space to work with and the Flyers are in a position to eat some salary on players they are trading away. The Kings aren't going to find many solid top-four options for an ideal number of years, so Provorov may be their best option.