While dramatic improvement on the ice is never a certainty, the Kings clearly catapulted themselves in terms of front-office transparency, with new general manager Ken Holland covering the draft, free agency and well beyond during a lengthy media session Wednesday.

Here are the main takeaways from his nearly 40-minute Q&A session.

Defense first

Holland said that the defensive corps was his top priority, with pending unrestricted free agent Vladislav Gavrikov being foremost among his personnel matters. Though outgoing GM Rob Blake had expressed considerable confidence in re-signing Gavrikov, it appears he will hit the open market when free agency kicks off on July 1 or, at a minimum, his negotiations will come down to the wire.

“Rob Blake had made an offer, and I went beyond that offer, and so now we are continuing to talk, and I think I made another offer, so we’ll see,” Holland said.

Gavrikov will headline the market for left-handed-shooting defense and possibly for rearguards of any type. When asked if duration or compensation was the holdup, Holland said there was no dispute over term.

“Probably dollars. We’re prepared to do a long-term deal. Rob Blake offered a deal, and I extended it,” he said.

Though Holland had numerous talks with Gavrikov’s new agent, Pat Brisson, and said they effectively had until Monday to reach an agreement, he didn’t rule out trading Gavrikov’s negotiating rights at this weekend’s draft if negotiations didn’t appear promising.

Larger roles

Unrestricted free agent winger Tanner Jeannot was valued for his “heaviness” and “hardness,” Holland said, but ultimately found a home on the fourth line before a season-ending injury shelved him through the playoffs. He’d like an expanded role next year, and Holland implied that it probably wasn’t there for him with the Kings.

Defenseman Jordan Spence is entering a contract year. While he was healthy for the playoffs, he might as well have been sidelined given that he was scratched for a game and saw a precipitous drop in ice time from the regular season in the other five games. Holland said Spence did not ask for a trade, but did make it clear he wanted a consistent role and to not “go backwards in his career.”

“He’d like to be here, but he wants to play. He’d like to be in the lineup every night,” Holland said. “He’s 24 years old, so if he’s not in the lineup every night, I think he’d like to be somewhere where he could be in the lineup every night. That’s part of what we have to decide between now and Tuesday (when free agency opens).”

Up front and in goal

Holland said he was confident that restricted free agent winger Alex Laferriere would re-up on a fair, short-term deal, confirming the obvious that a bridge-type contract length made the most sense for the organization when negotiating with the non-arbitration-eligible Laferriere.

Less certain but still promising seemed to be unrestricted free agent Andrei Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko reinvigorated his career after his arrival at last year’s trade deadline and liked the situation very much. Though there are plenty of moving components — Gavrikov’s status and the potential to sign a top forward from the open market, for openers — Kuzmenko might return, albeit with a limited commitment from both sides.

“I’d like a shorter term and I think they’d like a shorter term,” Holland said of Kuzmenko and his agent, Craig Oster. “He’s hoping to, wherever he might be, use the next opportunity to really establish himself.”