When the Calgary Flames put former first-round pick Jakob Pelletier on waivers to start the season, they risked losing a player who had plenty of potential. With the Los Angeles Kings waiving 23-year-old Arthur Kaliyev on Monday, the Flames have an opportunity to steal one.
With the loss of forwards Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland, the absolute disaster that has been Andrei Kuzmenko‘s season so far, and the lack of goalscoring in general for the Flames this season, what do they have to lose by putting in a claim for Kaliyev?
The Kings prospect is intriguing. He was the Kings’ second-round pick (33rd overall) in the 2019 NHL draft. Over parts of four NHL seasons, he’s scored 35 goals and 71 points in 188 regular season games. That’s decent production from a kid who has played fourth-line minutes with the Kings for the majority of his time there.
After a solid showing as a sniper in the CHL, Kaliyev had 14 goals and 27 points in 80 games as a Kings rookie in the 2021-22 season and followed up with 13 goals and 28 points in just 56 games as a freshman who battled injuries. He hasn’t really been healthy since. Last season, he had seven goals and 15 points in 51 games.
He has yet to play for the Kings this season because of a collarbone injury suffered on the second day of camp, but he was set to return from a conditioning stint in the AHL — forcing the Kings to make a roster move.
The Flames have struggled to produce offense this season and Kaliyev could be an upgrade over both Walker Duehr and a struggling Kuzmenko, who is stuck on just a single goal this year and was stuck to the bench on Saturday after two costly penalties in a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators.
Unlike the hesitancy at the start of a season for teams to scoop players from waivers — primarily because they have already made their roster decisions — mid-season lists tend to be more attractive. For a team like the Flames that is struggling to score and doesn’t have great depth, the move would make a lot of sense.
The only trouble there is how many other teams in front of them are in the same position.
