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Kings Former Top Prospect Requests a Trade
If you've been following the Los Angeles Kings this season, the recent report on Arthur Kaliyev shouldn't surprise you.
TheFourthPeriod's David Pagnotta reported that general manager Rob Blake will look to trade Kaliyev after he requested a trade.
Once a bright spot in the Kings' prospect pool, falling at 25 on The Athletic's league-wide prospect rankings, while being one of the Kings' most productive power-scorers between 2021-2023.
His season started promising. He had a strong camp and started hot on a line with Phil Danault and Trevor Moore, grabbing seven points in 10 games, but it all went down hill after he was moved onto Pierre-Luc Dubois' line.
The healthy scratches started in January and his Kings career never recovered.
To go through the timeline on Kaliyev's trade request, Darren Dreger reported in late January that Kaliyev was looking for a change. However that didn't necessarily mean a trade, it could have been internal changes.
It seems that Kaliyev, and his camp, made it clear they weren't happy with how things were going. No surprise given Kaliyev's string of healthy scratches just before that report.
Todd McLellan was asked about Kaliyev's lack of playing time and was very direct in his answer shortly after that report.
"He's got to fit the team, okay," said McLellan. "I know some of you guys are nodding because you're around the group long enough and you get it. You have to work hard to fit. And you've got to be a good, and I'm not saying that Arthur's not a good teammate, but you've got to be able to fit and want to be successful. And when he does that, he'll play again."
He was then asked directly about the report and if his comments were in reaction to them.
"No, no, no, no, no. Arthur wouldn't call Toronto and say 'Hey you know I'm looking for a new home,' His agent might but he won't." Was McLellan's response.
McLellan was fired shortly after and things didn't turn around for Kaliyev, rarely playing under interim head coach Jim Hiller.
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This shouldn't have been surprising, Hiller was part of the coaching staff that wasn't playing Kaliyev and it was unlikely he would change things.
Then, on Feb. 29 against the Vancouver Canucks, Hiller opted to healthy scratch Kaliyev in favor of playing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, a configuration he went with a lot after that.
From my understanding of the situation, Kaliyev and his agent formally submitted a trade request to the Kings shortly after that happened.
Of course, he wasn't granted that trade midseason. We don't know if the Kings shopped Kaliyev at the deadline, but there weren't rumblings of it happening.
The Kings needed NHL forwards on their roster and they didn't seem keen on bringing up Samuel Fagemo.
This left Kaliyev in limbo, in a situation where both player and team want to be done with each other.
It's also possible that Kings management wanted to wait and see how things played out with Hiller behind the bench. Kaliyev clearly wasn't a fit with Hiller or McLellan, but with the interim tag, they maybe wanted to wait and see who was behind the bench next season before deciding on Kaliyev.
That decision was made, it's going to be Hiller, which means Kaliev likely isn't on the roster.
Now it's about trying to recoup some value for Kaliyev, trading his RFA rights to a team looking for a low-risk-high-reward trade.
I've talked a bit about trades that would make sense for all parties, but it's very difficult to gauge Kaliyev's value right now.
If they can, packaging Kaliyev with the 21st pick to move up in the draft would be a good option, or trying to grab another young forward who needs a change of scenery like Oliver Wahlstrom.
They've waited until Kaliyev's value was at its lowest to move him, but anything is better than nothing at this point.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a draft-day trade.
