Former Top Draft Pick Available to Nashville Predators on Waivers

On Sunday afternoon, multiple NHL insiders reported that top Los Angeles Kings prospect Arthur Kaliyev had been placed on waivers, making him available to the Nashville Predators and 30 other teams for free.

Kaliyev, still just 23, was drafted 33rd overall by the Kings at the top of the second round in the 2019 NHL Draft. The Uzbek-American sniper was ranked as high as seventh heading into the draft, won the 2021 World Junior Championships with the United States, and won the J. Ross Robertson Cup as an OHL champion with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2018.

This is all to say that there is clearly a lot of talent and winning pedigree for the Predators to unearth here.

At this stage in his career, Kaliyev has at least shown that he can be an NHLer for a full season, though he has yet to realize his full potential. The former second-round pick scored 14 goals, 13 assists, and 27 points in 2021-22, 13 goals, 15 assists, and 28 points in 2022-23, and then took a step back last season, scoring just seven goals, eight assists, and 15 points in 51 games while rotating in and out of the lineup.

After recovering from a broken collarbone, Kaliyev played five AHL games for the Ontario Reign last month, scoring a goal and an assist in five games. He was also penalized in three of the five games.

And, let’s face it: even though the Predators have won two games in a row and are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, they still can’t score. Through 40 games, the Predators are one of two teams (Anaheim) in the NHL with fewer than 100 total goals scored this season. Kaliyev, a natural goal-scorer, has almost never played in a featured role that takes advantage of his talents.

Adding Kaliyev on waivers could allow the Predators to bump the struggling Gustav Nyquist or journeyman Vinnie Hinostroza down the lineup, for example, and inject some young blood and fresh legs into the forward group.

Every forward in Nashville’s top-six is 30 years old or older.

Kaliyev will be a restricted free agent, assuming he receives a qualifying offer, at the end of this season. He has one year remaining on his contract at an $825k cap hit, so if the Kings winger isn’t a fit in Music City, the Preds can move on from him just as quickly with no strings attached.

For a player with as much unrealized talent as Kaliyev, it’s worth a shot.

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