The last player to be a confirmed participant for Kings training camp also became the first to depart, as an upper-body injury sustained in practice Friday by winger Arthur Kaliyev could keep him out for an extended period of the upcoming season.
Kaliyev was confirmed by the team as an injury-related absence before Saturday’s action and afterward Jim Hiller told reporters that Kaliyev was “out,” providing no further detail.
Yet a pair of reports – which the team would not confirm to SCNG, saying only that Kaliyev was undergoing evaluation – surfaced that Kaliyev’s injury could require surgery and sideline him on a month-to-month basis.
Kaliyev, 23, was once a key piece to the Kings’ build, but last season experienced a fall from grace that was never fully explained. After a summer of exploring options to re-home the heavy-shooting, Uzbek-American flanker, the Kings signed him to a one-year, $825,000 extension just before camp opened Thursday.
“The whole summer I was trying to work hard and get ready, now I’m excited to finally be here. It’s like a fresh start, we’ll see what happens,” Kaliyev said on Thursday, adding he wanted to show he could be more of “an all-around player.”
But Friday, his enthusiasm was curbed after contact from defenseman Kyle Burroughs in the corner reportedly knocked him out of a scrimmage as well as Saturday’s practice.
While the Kings’ top nine appears fairly concrete at this point, their fourth line and depth positions were open to a robust competition between returners like Kaliyev and veteran Trevor Lewis, as well as younger players with limited NHL experience such as Alex Turcotte, Akil Thomas and Samuel Fagemo. Andre Lee, Samuel Helenius and other forwards who spent last season in the minors could also play their way into that conversation.
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For Kaliyev, a frustrating stretch filled with healthy scratches, limited minutes, a precipitous decline in deployment during offensive situations and a lack of communication defined last season. It was a tumultuous campaign for the club as a whole that saw a coaching change and manic swings in performance.
Now, he could be facing more uncertainty, with his health in the short term and renewed questions about his future once he is healthy given that this is a second straight contract year for 2019’s 33rd overall draft selection.