This season was a rough one for Kings winger Arthur Kaliyev. After being a capable secondary scorer in his first two seasons, things more or less went off the rails in 2023-24. Now, the 22-year-old is believed to have asked for a trade, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Kaliyev put up a respectable 14 goals and 13 assists in his rookie year in 2021-22 and followed that up with an improvement in 2022-23, collecting 13 goals and 15 helpers despite missing 26 games. Accordingly, there was reason for optimism that he’d take another step forward this season while ideally being able to play a little higher in the lineup.
None of that happened. Instead, Kaliyev found himself a frequent healthy scratch, especially under Jim Hiller who had the interim tag lifted to become the full-time head coach earlier this month. Along the way, he managed just seven goals and eight assists in 51 games while logging less than 12 minutes a night of playing time. Then, when the playoffs came, he was scratched for all five games in their opening-round loss to Edmonton.
While his stock isn’t at its highest right now, Kaliyev could be an intriguing buy-low candidate for some teams. 71 points in 188 career NHL appearances is relatively decent for a player who has averaged just over 12 minutes a night over that time. Meanwhile, while he’s a pending restricted free agent, Kaliyev is owed a qualifying offer of just $874K and doesn’t have salary arbitration rights. Coming off the year he just had, it’s hard to see him commanding much more than that on a one-year contract.
The Kings were believed to be open to trading Kaliyev during the regular season (amidst speculation that Kaliyev himself would also be open to being moved) but a suitable swap never came to fruition. Now, they’re believed to be willing to move on from him altogether according to a recent report from Eric Stephens of The Athletic (subscription link) so the asking price will almost certainly be lower now. With Kaliyev wanting to move on and Los Angeles believed to be wanting to move on from him, he seems quite likely to be moved in the coming weeks.
Would be a step up from Yamamoto for the Kraken
He’ll flourish with a different organization. An offensive minded top 6er at his peak.
Not sure what the organization saw to make them lose confidence in his play. Even when they did play him (which was rare) it was in a bottom six role. Even worse they never used him )and that hard shot) on the PP. I think he 20 or even 30 goal potential.
Don’t blame him one bit. Horrible work by saboteur Rob Blake and his staff as well as is group of clueless, loser coaching staff (only exception is Billy Ranford). The rest have purposefully destroyed the club.
They’ve started to destroy their prospect pool when Marc Bergevin arrived. He did the same thing in Montréal to get instant results. Bergevin is a snake charmer, he have this strong aibility to convince people around him, and finally he’s a gambler. He likes to take high risk/high reward decision.
Why in the world would you blame Bergevin for this? Complete idiocy.
Or, quite possibly, he is not as good as you believe he is.
Preds should make a call about him.
Kings ruined another good prospect. He should have spent 2-3 years in Ontario learning an all around game, instead he was brought up at 20 years old to play 3rd or 4th line minutes! High end picks gone or will be gone. Vallardi, Bjornfot, Kayliev and probably Fagemo… Good job Blake!
Marc Bergevin’s influence
Penguins should be in on any competent bottom 6 winger at this point.
The mediocre Kings ruin another prospect. Get used to mediocrity.
He (like Turcotte) were bad picks… this isn’t a ‘development’ or mismanagement issue.. The kid’s just not that good.
Happy trails, Arthur….
I would like the Flyers to try and get him for the right price.
A good straight one for one would be the Isle’s Oliver Wahlstrom for Kaliyev. Both players have had highest & lowest and need a change of scenery.
Only question is if Patrick Roy thinks Kaliyev can play in his system. That said, they’re both 1st rd picks that still have an opportunity to turn it around. I think this makes sense for both clubs.
Kaliyev was a second-round pick.