An interesting development occurred in the NHL this last week, and one has to wonder if it will color the Bruins’ and their free agents’ approach to talks on any new deals.

Los Angeles defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, the deadline deal acquisition from Columbus who performed very well for the Kings’ down the stretch, was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. For the usually sought-after commodity – a 27-year-old, 6-foot-3, 221-pound rugged defenseman who can also be useful in the offensive zone – it was normally the time for him to either re-up with his current team on a lucrative max eight-year contract or sit back and wait for the suitors to fall all over themselves.

Instead, Gavrikov signed just a two-year extension heavy on signing bonuses that will pay him a healthy AAV of $5.875 million.

Putting aside the ever-present risk of an injury that could change the trajectory of a career, the short-term deal is an understandable long-term play. The salary cap is only expected to go up by $1 million while, according to capfriendly.com, nearly half the league has less than $10 million in cap space, with those teams still needing to sign some of their own free agents.

On Friday, we saw a more traditional route, when the busy Blue Jackets pulled off a sign-and-trade with New Jersey for UFA-to-be defenseman Damon Severson, inking him to a generous max eight-year deal worth $6.25 million a season.

While Severson’s reportedly pushed for the max eight years – and it’s hard to imagine there’d be a much better deal for him in a year or two than the one he signed – Gavrikov bet on himself and the widely held belief that there will be a lot more financial fluidity across the league in a year or two when it’s expected that the cap will grow at a pre-pandemic rate.

So it appears there are a couple of paths than can be taken, and it will be interesting to see if the Gavrikov route would be of any interest to the B’s or their free agents.

Now, a short-term deal won’t do anything to alleviate the B’s most immediate problem, which is they don’t have much money to sign anyone until they offload salary. But presuming they do make the move or moves – whether it’s Taylor Hall or Linus Ullmark or Matt Grzelcyk or RFA Jeremy Swayman or even Brad Marchand – it would give the B’s some flexibility in the the next couple of years in case management comes to the belief that a real rebuild is in order in the post Patrice Bergeron/David Krejci era.

Of the two pending UFAs that hold the most interest in the open market – Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov – it would at seem the Gavrikov approach would fit the 28-year-old Bertuzzi more than it would for Orlov, who’ll be 32 by the time next season opens. Though it comes at an unlucky time for Orlov, now might be the best time for him to get as much as he can get in term and money on the open market. We were big fans of his all-round game, but it doesn’t seem like the timing is right for there to be a marriage with the B’s.

But Bertuzzi is still young enough to make a bigger score down the road if he signed just a one- or two-year deal. Would he take that gamble or would the siren song of free agency be just too hard to resist? We’ll see. But if the B’s can make that work, it could help them sort through what could be a couple of very uncertain years for the organization.

Brad can be had?

Speaking of the possibility of a Marchand trade, we have little doubt that the B’s have at least contemplated it – the team’s situation is that fluid – but the B’s have to tread very carefully.

If the B’s are to move him, it has to be for a prospect or prospects that would be future-altering for the organization and not a glorified salary dump.

Anyone can be traded and, if any deal that presents itself will stabilize the franchise for the future, the B’s should seriously consider moving the 35-year-old Marchand.

But not only is Marchand still an elite left wing, there are other factors to consider. The B’s were able to keep their highly competitive window open because players like Marchand took the long-term team-friendly deal that makes him a steal at $6.125 million. While the market-value deals Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak signed may have spelled the end of the hometown discount in Boston, at least for the time being, it wouldn’t be the worst message to send the message that the organization stuck with Marchand until the end of the deal.

Secondly, Marchand is the most logical candidate to succeed Bergeron as captain if Bergeron decides to retire. He not only has learned to strike the right tone when speaking for the team, his competitiveness is contagious both in games and in practice. While Bergeron has been the undisputed leader of the team the past couple of years, Marchand is a tone-setter. McAvoy and Pastrnak are both great players, but it’s not yet clear if those leadership qualities are in their DNA. Maybe they would grown into it at some point, but foisting that responsibility upon them before either of them are ready could be disastrous.

Kudos to Cronin

It’s hard not be happy for Greg Cronin, who at age 60 is getting his first NHL head coaching gig with the Anaheim Ducks. The Arlington native’s coaching career began 36 years ago at his alma mater, Colby, and took him to UMaine, Colorado College, back to Maine, to the national program, to the Islanders organization, to a six-year stint as head coach at Northeastern, to the Toronto Maple Leafs, back to the Islanders and most recently the head coach of the AHL Colorado Eagles.

That’s a lot of experience and dues paid.

Whether Cronin can see the Ducks through to being a true contender again remains to be seen, but he should help the Ducks’ talented young players like Trevor Zegras get a better handle on what’s important and what isn’t.

Net risk

While some may think it’s a foregone conclusion that the B’s move a goalie, it may not be that easy. The goalie trade market could be crowded. After the rebuilding Flyers got Cal Petersen in the three-team trade that saw defenseman Ivan Provorov land in Columbus, there has been reasonable speculation that the Flyers could look to move one-time hot prospect Carter Hart, who has had his issues behind a bad Philly team but could still be the real deal. He’s still just 24.

On top of that, there has been talk that Vezina finalist Connor Hellebyuck, who is entering the last year of his contract, could also be trade bait.

Considering that there are only so many teams looking for a No. 1 goalie, both Ullmark and Swayman could remain in Black and Gold.

Future goal scorer?

Finally, congrats to Pastrnak and his fiance, Rebecca, on the birth of their daughter, Freya Ivy, who arrived on June 2. Two summers ago, the couple suffered through unspeakable heartbreak when their first child, Viggo Rohl, died after six days.

On Friday, the joy was palpable in Pastrnak’s Instagram post announcing the birth.

“We’ve dreamt about this moment for a long time,” Pastrnak wrote. “I couldn’t be more proud of my two beautiful girls. I can’t wait to watch you be the best mamma to our little nugget.”