Kidney has a little bit of season left to get better.
Riley Kidney needed to show out this season in Laval. Considering he was a second-round pick in 2021, each passing year gets this pick closer and closer to oblivion.
Last season Kidney had nine points in 30 games. This year he’s on the same pace and that’s not good enough. His average TOI back in December was 12:25 and now it’s dropped to 12:08. That’s a real negative and he’s getting less than a minute on the power play on average and almost non-existent on the penalty kill.
Kidney has a goal and eight assists in 30 games. He’s only taking 1.73 shots per game. He’s trending down and he’s running out of season to turn this season around. He is going to be 22 in March. As a second-round pick, there are more expectations on placed on him. They all swim in the same prospect pool but that matters.
According to InStat, he’s at 8% defensive zone starts so that’s a plus. He was at 5% in December. So his all-around game is improving a bit, but now he has to get both of these aspects to fire up at once. He's expected to provide more offense than the current level he's at.
One other positive is his face-off percentage is up to 54%. That’s another nice jump, the biggest jump in his game so there is a glimmer of hope that he can finish out strong to carry into next year because he’s likely going to be in Laval again.