After sustaining a leg injury in New York on Saturday, Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has been ruled out for Wednesday night’s game vs. the visiting Winnipeg Jets. In his place will be 25-year-old Jacob Moverare.
Despite being selected by Los Angeles back at the 2016 NHL Draft (fourth round, 112th overall), many aren’t that familiar with him, especially considering his limited time in the NHL over the past few years.
Since turning pro — where he has split time between the AHL and NHL, with the vast majority of his games played for the Ontario Reign — Moverare’s skating has gotten better each year. After debuting with the Kings in Jan. 2022, he has learned to better manage game situations through the use of his skating and intelligence. He’s so smart on the ice, it’s allowed him to figure out the game and lessen his deficiencies.
With all of that that in mind, here are 7 Things You Need to Know before puck drop at Crypto.com Arena later tonight:
1. Moverare was originally signed to his Entry Level Contract on July 14, 2016 – nearly a full year before Rob Blake took over as GM. That summer, after spending the previous few years in his native Sweden, Moverare made the move to North America and joined the OHL to continue his development and ascension into being a full-fledged NHL prospect.
2. He played two seasons with the Mississauga Steelheads, finishing second and third in the OHL Coaches Poll for Best Defensive Defenseman. In 2017-18, he missed out on the honor by just one vote.
3. At the time of being drafted, Moverare was only 17 years old. Like Adrian Kempe, that puts him in a very rare group of players under the age of 18 who were ever selected by LA. It was something Mark Yannetti expounded on during an interview with Mayor’s Manor around that time:
“I think age is used the wrong way to determine potential,” said the Kings longtime Director of Amateur Scouting. “I always like the term ‘developmental age.’ Take Nick Dowd; he’s improved leaps and bounds in the last year and a half. And he continues to improve because his developmental age does not match his [true] age. So you can have a 17-year-old, who is close to tapped out, or a 20-year-old, who looks like somebody’s younger brother. With Jacob, he is 17, but he is at the very, very bottom end of the developmental age for me. That’s another huge positive, because strength is a component of skating. Coordination is a component of skating. Foundational, muscle memory, the foundational aspect of coordination that these guys learn, is at the lower end of that spectrum. So it’s not surprising that his skating would be below average. And there are also some technical flaws, too, so the question is how much do the technical flaws get accentuated by the physical flaws? We will have to take that as we go.”
In that same interview, Yannetti also said:
“Moverare, in my opinion and our staff’s opinion, had the highest hockey IQ of defensemen in the Draft. Not of Europeans, in terms of all defensemen, we think he had the highest hockey IQ, period.”
The full interview is available at the link down below.
4. His contract path has not been very common. Because he signed his ELC at such a young age, it was actually able to slide twice, meaning it didn’t actually begin until the 2018-19 season. When it expired, he signed a one-year deal for 2021-22. He passed through waivers that season, as well. In the summer of 2022, Moverare inked his current two-year contract. Of note is the fact that for this season he is on a one-way deal, meaning he is making an NHL salary ($775k) even when playing in the AHL. This makes him among the three highest paid players on the Ontario Reign. It’s also designed to deter other teams from potentially scooping him up off waivers.
5. With Moverare having already cleared waivers earlier this season, he can go up/down between the two leagues until he’s been on the Kings roster for 30 days or played in 10 NHL games — whichever comes first. It’s a situation that Jaret Anderson-Dolan was in earlier this year (and we explained more about how this works here). Through all of the paper transactions over the past month or so, Moverare has now been on the NHL roster for a total of 19 days. Fairly soon, he’ll need to clear waivers again to be assigned back to Ontario. This is something to keep an eye on should Gavrikov’s injury drag on.
6. Because it’s that time of the year on the hockey calendar, we’ll also mention that Moverare won a silver medal at the 2018 World Junior Championship. In an interesting note, Sweden has not finished that high in the five years since, only claiming bronze on two occasions.
7. Tonight will mark his first NHL game since Nov. 2022 vs. the New York Rangers (one of juts two games he played for Los Angeles last season). After turning pro in 2020, Moverare played a little more than one full season with AHL Ontario before making his NHL debut on January 6, 2022 against the Nashville Predators. Just prior to that game, here’s what coach Todd McLellan had to say about his newest blueline addition:
“He’s intelligent, he anticipates plays both offensively and defensively and he’s fairly steady. His game hasn’t been all over the map. He just plays and gets things done. His teammates really like him, they enjoy playing with him when he’s on the ice and our guys have adopted him pretty well too. I’m excited for him individually, it’s a good reward for him, he’s done his homework.”
Moverare went on to play 19 games for the Kings that season. In a testament to his defensive abilities, he was only a minus player in three of those games. His season-ending plus-minus number was better than five other Kings defenseman who played at least 10 games that season. McLellan also wasn’t afraid to use him, as Moverare averaged 16:20 of ice time per game.
Last season, with a fairly full group of defenders, Moverare was only recalled to play in two NHL games. Instead, he skated in 62 games with AHL Ontario, where he recorded 26 points; his best output as a pro. This season, through 16 games with the Reign — where he’s most often been paired with Brandt Clarke on the first defensive unit — Moverare has five assists.
He also was part of the LA’s Black Aces during the playoffs last year.
Additional players being added to LA Kings Black Aces group:
– Lias Andersson
– Samuel Helenius
– Andre Lee
– Jacob Moverare
– Jordan Spence
– Franky PinelliNotes:
– Brandt Clarke / Barrie just eliminated Monday. Likely added in a few days.
– Turcotte/Fagemo not likely added. https://t.co/wZTwQRcvQB— The Mayor | Team MM (@mayorNHL) April 27, 2023
RELATED CONTENT:
Yannetti on 17-year-old Jacob Moverare, Kings 2016 Draft Pick
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