2025 Exit Interviews – Kuemper, Lewis, Gavrikov, Kuzmenko, Laferriere, Jeannot

Finalizing exit interviews for the 2024-25 season with the last six players from Monday’s availability.

There’s a wide mix of players listed below. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper is the only player of the six who is under contract with the Kings entering next season and he is coming off his best season in the NHL, ending with a nomination for the Vezina Trophy. Forward Alex Laferriere is a restricted free agent, who can only sign with the Kings, while the other four players – Vladislav Gavrikov, Andrei Kuzmenko, Tanner Jeannot and Trevor Lewis – are unrestricted free agents as of July 1.

*Of note, the videos this season were posted in one YouTube video as opposed to 18 separate ones. The embedded videos below are the same link, timestamped to go directly to the players mentioned when you click play.

Darcy Kuemper & Trevor Lewis

Darcy’s Debut…..Pt. 2
Wasn’t exactly Darcy Kuemper’s debut season with the Kings organization but it certainly was in the role he filled for the team.

Kuemper was here back in 2017-18, as the backup to Jonathan Quick, before he left for Arizona, Colorado and Washington, eventually making his way back to the Kings this past summer, coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. How did he respond back with his old club? With one of the best seasons of his career, as he posted some of the strongest numbers of any goaltender in the NHL.

So what’s the key to running it back?

“I think just have another good summer of training and making sure my body feels good,” Kuemper said. “It’s not like I was doing anything crazy this season, I think it’s all very repeatable, so I’m looking forward to another good year next year.”

Simple enough. For as good as Kuemper’s season was, I think the point he’s making is that he wasn’t doing anything special. It was just getting back to the game he had coming in, before last season, and doing that in a place where he felt comfortable and was trusted to be the team’s starting goaltender.

So What Was The Secret?
It can often times be hard to get a player to talk about why they performed so much better in one season versus another. Kuemper, as many do, gave a lot of credit to those around him.

Specifically, Kuemper has pointed multiple times to the work he and goaltending coach Mike Buckley put in towards getting his game back to where he could be.

“I think I owe a lot of that to Mike Buckley, just he had a clear message right from the moment I was traded here, some things in my game he thought I’d maybe gotten away from, things that have made me successful throughout most my career, that we got back to,” Kuemper said. “When we started working on those things, I started feeling really comfortable with my game. Obviously, had a great group of guys in front of me too, which helped the whole way through.”

The relationship between a goaltender and a goaltending coach is very different than you’ll find elsewhere on an NHL team.

Head coach or assistant coach to players can be strong, certainly, but even the best relationship isn’t the same directness that a goaltender has with a goaltending coach. Buckley is really responsible for two players at a time, with Kuemper and David Rittich those two players for the bulk of the season, minus a couple of times when Kuemper was injured. Kuemper credited the relationship – both working and personal – as a key factor in his resurgence this season.

“There’s only two goalies on a team and one coach, so it’s a pretty close connection,” Kuemper said. “If there’s a good chemistry there, then I feel like you see the benefits from that instantly, because it’s such a close working relationship. When they understand your game and understand you as a person, I feel like they do a good job of getting the best.”

Lewie’s Last Run?
Not so fast.

Lewis was asked during his interview if he planned to retire at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season and Lewis responded that it is his intention to continue playing.

“No, I don’t think so. We’ll see what happens in the summer, but I still feel good, so we’ll see what’s out there. I’d love to keep playing.”

Lewis had a milestone season in 2024-25, as he appeared in his 1,000th career game in the NHL, quite the accomplishment for any player. Lewis has had good career with the Kings, over two spells, playing the bulk of his career with the Kings organization. His role diminished down the stretch and into the postseason, as younger players took on more after the trade deadline, though his presence in the locker room and impact on the team in a few ways has been spoken about by several players on the team. As high a character player as the Kings have in the room and someone who hasn’t complained about not playing every night. The Kings do have players ready to take on larger roles in the bottom six, including Samuel Helenius and Jeff Malott, who both skated in all six playoff games, and that could complicate a potential return, but we’ll see how things play out entering the summer.

Vladislav Gavrikov & Andrei Kuzmenko

Gift Of Gav
Coming off perhaps the strongest season of his NHL career, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov is an unrestricted free agent for the second time.

The first was in 2023, when he and the Kings agreed to a two-year contract extension, carrying a cap hit of just under $6 million per season. The contracts in front of him this summer will likely be larger, both in terms of salary and term. At 29-years-old and the salary cap jumping this summer, along with the next two summers, Gavrikov is in a position now to sign a long-term extension at a larger cap hit, if he so chooses. The cap hit will almost certainly be larger, no matter the length of the contract. The term is the one that will have to be determined by both player and team, whether that be the Kings or elsewhere.

Kings President Luc Robitaille said on Tuesday that despite a general manager not being in place, conversations with Gavrikov and his representation is still encouraged and the two sides can continue to work towards an extension. It seemed an extension was closer in March, at the trade deadline, but ultimately everything was kicked into the offseason, with nearly two months still left in an exclusive negotiation window for the Kings. Gavrikov has liked his time here and he’s made clear there is no pressure to get a deal done tomorrow, nor has there been at any stage of the season.

“Before the season, I let [the Kings] know I have no rush with that question, so we can wait until whenever,” Gavrikov said. “No one wants to talk about it, rushing it before the playoffs especially and during the summer, we have more time to think. I made it clear that we have plenty of time.”

In terms of fit, Gavrikov has a good one in Los Angeles.

But there are 31 other teams in play and Gavrikov will likely be one of the top blueliners on the open market. He admitted he hadn’t really thought much about the possibility of other destinations, but he would do so over the next couple of weeks to determine other fits, outside of Los Angeles, compared to what he knows here with the Kings.

“Its a hard question to answer right now, because you have to scout more around the league, if you want to know when you’re going to be and a good fit for a team. I haven’t done it yet, but I have plenty of time to research with my agent, to see where we’re at. I think we have a good idea about it over the next few weeks or so.

Expecting conversations to continue here between player and team, between now and July 1. The Kings have ample space to get a deal done, if both sides are in agreement, but the numbers have to make sense on both sides. Will see where things go on that front.

All Kings (Kuz)Men(ko)
Andrei Kuzmenko said he gets it now.

His career coming to the Kings had been a roller coaster. He was a highly-touted signing out of Russia, off a season at over a point-per-game with SKA St. Petersburg, and he exploded onto the scene in Vancouver with 39 goals and 74 points as a first-year NHL player. Midway through a less-productive second season with the Canucks, Kuzmenko was moved to Calgary and again was quite productive, at nearly a point-per-game in the second half of the season. This season was a mixed bag in Calgary before he was traded to Philadelphia and then again to Los Angeles at the deadline. Kuzmenko had 17 points from 22 games with the Kings and another six from six games in the playoffs.

So he’s been here before, right? A strong start with a new team and in the past, those starts have not carried over into the second season. So what would be different with the Kings, if both sides agreed to extend the relationship? After three seasons and five coaches, Kuzmenko believes he gets it now.

“Three years, five coaches, every coach helped me and now I understand how I can play, how I need to play and how I can help these teams,” he said. “It’s not just offensive zone, I need to play better in the defensive zone too. I understand those moments. So simple.”

Kuzmenko, to his credit, was extremely bought in with the Kings. He was terrific on the power play, certainly, but his backchecking commitment and prowess was lauded by the coaching staff as well. He was precisely what the Kings needed him to be over the final 22 games and into the postseason. If he can continue to operate at that same level, he’d be what they’ll need next season as well, with the gifts he brings different than most other players in the organization. If the message was received, there’s a lot to come for Andrei Kuzmenko in the NHL.

All Kings (Kuz)Men(ko)
But the question is, really, will those things come with the Kings organization?

“We’ll see.”

As with Gavrikov, Kuzmenko was one of the three free agents that Robitaille mentioned as being someone the Kings want to immediately speak with about the possibility of returning. That doesn’t mean they’re going to agree to a contract right away, but it means the Kings don’t need to press pause completely until hiring a general manager.

For Kuzmenko, I’d imagine he would have interest from different teams around the NHL, including the Kings. He was a good fit here in Los Angeles, but his contract is a very difficult one to predict. He’s only played in the league for three seasons and he’s got a 35-goal season and a 70-point season under his belt. He made an impact with the Kings, certainly, but we all know that 20 games doesn’t always translate into 80, especially over the course of a long season when the going gets tough. I do think there will be mutual interest in extending the relationship between player and team. But, as Kuzmenko said, it’s the business and the business side has to make sense.

“It’s a hard question, because I like LA, I like the organization, there’s a good relationship and with team there’s a good chance [to win],” he said. “I like it, but we will see what happens. We’ll see. This is hockey business.”

That is, I suppose, what we’ll see over the coming weeks, if this thing continues to make sense for both parties.

Alex Laferriere & Tanner Jeannot

Progress For 14
2024-25 was a step forward for Alex Laferriere. He was impressive as a rookie and looked even more so as a second-year player. It wasn’t perfect, though.

Laferriere had 13 goals in his first 33 games, which comes in around a 33-goal pace for the season. His next 34 games? Just two goals, with an injury in the middle which cost him some time. He finished the season with four goals from his final nine games, which brings him to a season total of 19, one shy of his first 20-goal season in the NHL. That will come in time.

“For me personally, I thought I grew a lot as a player this year,” Laferriere said. “I think just having a little more confidence coming into this year, having gone through it for a full year, I’ve talked a lot about the fact that you play like 35 games in college and come in and play 80 games or one year. That’s a lot and something I wasn’t used to. But I think having gone through that first year, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence.”

As far as going forward, I think finding that more consistent scoring touch is a priority, as it is for so many younger players.

Laferriere is a very promising player who has a ton of versatility in his game and can likely slot in on a variety of different lines, in different roles and positions, and find a way to be both effective and productive. He understands that there will be ups and downs within a season and he feels that he was contributing to the team, even when the puck was not going into the net. Still, though, maintaining that scoring touch for longer stretches is something he’s cognizant of and wants to improve on going forward.

“It’s the NHL, it’s a really hard league to score in and you’re going to go through ups and downs because it is such a long season. If you look at our team, Q wasn’t scoring a lot at the beginning of the year and then he scored like six or seven straight games and is one of our leading scorers. There’s so many ups and downs throughout the year. For me, started really good and kind of wasn’t going my way a points of this season, but you’ve got to try and look at it as trying to do anything you can positively for the team. For me, I think the way that my style of play is, I can be effective when I’m not scoring as well. I just kind of tried to look at the positives with that, but obviously I want to score goals, everybody wants to score goals.”

First Time FA
Coming off that 19-goal season, a year most would agree was progress, what’s next for Laferriere?

He’s a restricted free agent without the possibility of an offer sheet. So, the Kings are in full team control. There are a few paths he could take and with the salary cap already committed to rising over the next three years, it will be interesting to see what route he and other younger players decide to go. Do you take a shorter-term contract, banking on yourself and potentially cashing in greater down the road? Or do you opt for the security and commitment, which would offer more money over the first few years but potentially less down the road? It’s interesting.

It’s a process Laferriere is navigating for the first time as a professional player.

How involved does he want to be in it?

“Yeah, I honestly have no idea,” he admitted. “I think that I want my voice to be heard in the conversations and stuff like that, because it’s my future, but I trust everybody on my side and have really good relationships with guys here.”

Regardless of how involved he winds up being, Laferriere wants to be with the Kings for the long haul.

“I haven’t gone through it before, this is my first time going through it,” he added. “Luckily I have a really good support staff that’ll help me get through that, my family and my agents. I’m going to have a lot of conversations with them. Obviously I love it here and want to be here for as long as possible.”

Black & Tan(ner)
Jeannot is also a free agent at the end of the season.

When he was acquired over the summer via trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jeannot was hoped to be a top-nine forward for the Kings, someone who could come in and bring a different element on a line with Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore. Ultimately, that wasn’t the right fit and once things shook out, Jeannot found a home on the team’s fourth line as a physical and veteran presence, leading the way on that line down the stretch until he was injured late in the season. Settling into that role, Jeannot played some really good hockey for the Kings, providing a different element to the group with an honest and hardworking approach.

“Coming into a new team and your organization, that kind of feeling out process every day and every game, I just tried to bring my skillset and what I’m good at,” Jeannot said. “Wherever that is in the lineup, I tried to just do that to the best I can. I know what kind of attributes I can bring to a team. At the time of the injury there, we were playing some really good hockey really getting the group going, so it was really unfortunate, the timing of everything. I found a good role and just tried to bring everything I could to the team.”

When Jeannot was acquired, he had one season remaining on his contract. Jeannot was the third player that Robitaille mentioned during his availability on Tuesday, noting that he had not done his exit meeting yet with Jeannot, but that was scheduled for Wednesday. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicated that there had been some conversation between the two sides in-season but ultimately nothing resulted from it.

So, it brings Jeannot to unrestricted free agency on July 1. I think he’s a player the Kings would love to keep around. He plays the game the right way and I think he was really effective in his role. His cap hit, though was nearly $3 million per season, with his 24-goal season in Nashville bumping that number up. If the Kings see Jeannot as a fourth-line player, that’s a lot to pay. He was very effective in that role, though, just without the offensive numbers he produced with the Predators.

So, I think there could be some mutual interest, but it’s got to make sense, dollars wise, especially on the Kings end heading into the summer.

“I haven’t thought too much about it, I just was focused on when I could get back and to prove my value to the team here and go far in the playoffs,” he added. “I’m still getting over that. I’m going to be having lots of conversations with family and my agent. We really liked our year here and we’ll see what happens from here.”

That’s a wrap for exit interviews.

Coming up tomorrow, will set up the summer with an overview of where the Kings are at with regards to the NHL Salary Cap heading into the months to come. With the general manager position currently vacant, the full leadership group rounding out the roster is unknown, but the Kings are working behind the scenes to fill it as soon as possible, with the proper candidate.