The Kings have re-signed beleaguered winger Arthur Kaliyev to a one-year contract with an annual average value of $825,000, the team announced in a news release on Wednesday.
Kaliyev, 23, was selected 33rd overall in 2019 and became part of a Kings prospect pool that various news outlets including The Athletic and The Hockey News dubbed the best and brightest in the NHL for multiple seasons.
Today, his uncertain role is another symbol of the failed promise of that specific draft class for the Kings and how little they have to show for their once sparkling stable of aspirants.
In Kaliyev’s first full season in the league, 2021-22, he notched 14 goals and 27 points, nine of which came on the power play, in 80 games. The following campaign saw his participation limited to 56 games, mostly by injury, but he still improved his power-play production (12 points) and overall total (28 points).
Though Money Puck’s figures indicated he placed third among returning Kings forwards in expected goals per 60 minutes and second in shots on goal per 60 minutes last season, Kaliyev fell out of favor with former coach Todd McLellan and vanished from sight for extended periods under his successor, Jim Hiller.
After notching 11 points and averaging over 14 minutes per game in the first six weeks of the season, Kaliyev began to see a downturn in his deployment, picking up just four points the rest of the way. His usage declined further and his production evaporated completely during the Kings’ abysmal month before the All-Star break.
Kaliyev further receded from view across a stretch run during which Hiller and crew satisfied a revised mandate for a team that was, ostensibly, in Stanley Cup contention just a month or so earlier: make the playoffs.
They did so, but without the assistance of Kaliyev, who was frequently a healthy scratch or allotted meager ice time. General Manager Rob Blake expressed doubts as to whether or not Kaliyev would return, as further evidenced by a signing that would typically have taken place in June or July happening the day before training camp was set to open.
“He didn’t help us down the stretch here at all. So, we’re going to have to figure something out with him, for sure,” Blake said in May, the last time he addressed the media.
Blake offered what was simultaneously an understatement and a something of a misnomer, since Kaliyev never had a genuine opportunity to aid the Kings’ cause in crucial matches. In March and April, he made just seven appearances, playing double-digit minutes, barely, just once, and scoring one goal.
Illustrations of the dissonance between team and player were both frequent and stark. Once, a late lack of availability for the Kings’ 12th forward appeared to open a door for a Kaliyev appearance, but the Kings dressed a seventh defensemen instead, something they did frequently under Hiller.
Furthermore, on nights when he was scratched, Kaliyev turned into a ghost after games, darting out of the arena before the Kings’ locker room had even opened.
Now, Kaliyev, who might still prefer to ply his trade elsewhere per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, is back under contract with the Kings after spending essentially all of 2024 in some form of purgatory.