Round 2 33rd overall Arthur Kaliyev

[Statto]

If you have a player who has all the tools but lacks conditioning and compete level if there was a perfect destination for him it has to be L.A. I’ve gone from being happy with the pick to absolutely thrilled by it.

I just watched his combine interview on NHL tonight and liked him a lot. He comes across as a little awkward but if you get past that he seems a nice kid. He’s really focused on his offensive game and think his key strength is anticipating where the puck is going to be (something Gretzky always felt was key to his game) and getting open. He then said he needs to work primarily on his first few steps from standing when accelerating which I thought told a story. No talk of improvement of his 200 ft game, all offence.

People talk about compete but in the play offs he apparently played 30 minutes a couple of times. That’s a player doing what his coach is asking for so that mitigates to some degree the concerns about back checking etc. His coach clearly trusts him so that makes me think he’ll work on whatever is asked of him. They’ll soon know what they have once development camp opens and my gut is that they (along with the rest of us) will be very excited.

Edit: Found this article after I wrote the post. I used to know his Coach a little bit and he was a pretty good 200ft player before it became trendy, I think he’s a great mentor for him. Good to see that he seems coachable.

Sharpshooting Arthur Kaliyev is just getting started in Hamilton - TheHockeyNews

 

[Mats26]

I see lots of similarities to Alex Kovalev. Big frame with good hockey sense in the O zone and incredible shot and release. Needs to work on his skating and D coverage. I don't buy the worth ethic BS, he is a pure sniper and these types of players are always labeled as "lazy" when they don't score.

 

[SFKingshomer]

I see lots of similarities to Alex Kovalev. Big frame with good hockey sense in the O zone and incredible shot and release. Needs to work on his skating and D coverage. I don't buy the worth ethic BS, he is a pure sniper and these types of players are always labeled as "lazy" when they don't score.

I tend to agree with the lazy part. As long as he works to get open and puts in the effort on D. Tarasenko looks lazy at times...

 

[sinister6000]

You put him with Kopitar, and Iafallo. Kaliyev will be fine at even strength.

 

[ibleedkings]

Here's every one of his goals from last season. Kid has a wicked one timer. There's nobody currently on the Kings that has a shot this good IMO.

 

[BringTheReign]

You put him with Kopitar, and Iafallo. Kaliyev will be fine at even strength.

Agree, Iafallo retrieves pucks and backchecks enough for two players. Instead of each winger potting 20-25, Iafallo will just keep putting up 10 and Kaliyev can float around for 40. Net goals stay the same.

 

[BigKing]

I've watched both his 2018 and '19 highlight videos a couple of times.

Has just a great shot. Not a lot of deke goals so you wonder about his hands but then there is one penalty shot and then a SO attempt where you see that he has the moves if needed.

But his shot is insane. What's really impressive though is that he isn't always just aiming for bar down or whatnot: he can really put it where he wants it close to or along the ice as well.

I can understand Toffoli comparisons but I think Toffoli's skating concerns were larger than AK's. Regardless, this is the most exciting goal scoring prospect the Kings have drafted since TT.

 

[AzKing]

When a guy like Kaliyev gets slighted and picked far lower than expected, the fire a lot of times tends to burn quite a bit hotter.

This is a pick that teams will talk about in the future as he lights the lamp 30-40 times a year.

 

[Lt Dan]

When a guy like Kaliyev gets slighted and pick far lower than expected, the fire a lot of times tends to burn quite a bit hotter.

This reminds me of Aaron Rodgers when the Niners chose Smith over him

“Not as disappointed as the 49ers will be that they didn’t draft me"
Let the fire burn!

 

[Herby]

This is a type of pick the Kings have very rarely made over the past dozen or so years. He may or may not make it, that isn't the point, it's just nice they are actually giving themselves a chance to hit on one of these types of picks. It's hard to develop scoring when you don't draft scorers.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Holy crap this was some serious gambling by Yanetti and team, but boy oh boy did his predictions come to fruition. Well played good sir.


Mark Yannetti, on when the decision to select Arthur Kaliyev was made:
I can tell you we had two guys – you’re going to need 20 minutes for me to talk. We were confident, and when I say ‘confident,’ I mean we’re not just flipping the coin and rolling the dice. Confident doesn’t mean ‘100%.’ It just means we thought there was a better-than-average chance that two guys would fall to 33, and he was a guy that we thought might fall, and like I said, if anyone wants to talk to me for a long time, it played into the Bjornfot thing. Both guys were there at 33, both guys we thought would fall there. [Reporter: Is there a five-minute version?] Yeah, I guess so. So, it’s draft strategy, right? The problem is I don’t think I can do it in five minutes because I’m one of the most verbose human beings on the planet. That’s Dean’s fault, by the way. Blame Dean for me being like this.

So, what happens is you look at 22, and we had a dead heat at 22. So, you have a D and a forward that happen to be our dead heat. And then you look at the draft, and if you look at our list – not any independent list – between 22 and 32, we would’ve had two defensemen left on our list, and then between 22 and 33, we had two defensemen but we had four forwards. I know it doesn’t make sense – that’s why it’s the short version. So, the odds of there being a defenseman there at 33 were less than half of what it was with there being a forward. That’s just your numbers. Now, you look at all the independent lists, and we identified two of those forwards we thought would be the ones to fall, so now it checks another box in terms of what may be there.

So, what we did is we took a slight calculation of risking maybe losing the forward because if we lose those guys, the difference in depth between the four guys that we lose and the ones that would be available at 33 was much less than what you’d lose between a defenseman. So, if the two defensemen are on a scale of 1-100, the difference is 70. If the forwards go, the next forward, it’s like 20. So we kind of took a calculated risk saying that we wouldn’t get defensive value at 33, but we could still get forward value if our list went wrong.

… I can’t tell you how stressful it was watching 27, 28, 29, and then once it got to 31, then we knew we’d get one of the two, and we’re like, ‘oh yeah, we’re geniuses.’ And I’m sitting there the whole time, like, ‘don’t [go poorly].’ I’m telling Rob this is a probability, and if a probability doesn’t happen, then I’d look like an idiot.

 

[BigKing]

They definitely look like geniuses by guessing right. I would hope those that chastised everyone for freaking out after the 22nd pick since they wound up getting AK anyways can read this and see that Management was sweating bullets up until the end of Round 1.

That's great drafting though. Know your opponents and gauge the probability your guy will still be there.

I also love the trade up for Fagemo. I did not want to try and package 22 and 33 to move up in to the mid-to-late teens as I wanted more picks in the top portion than fewer. Picking up an additional #2--and using it on a guy that is basically in Kupari and Thomas's draft class--is pretty sweet. It's just always a bummer when you use a high pick on a dude you could have drafted in the later rounds the year before but, then again, maybe this kid doesn't ramp his game up if not for being snubbed the year before.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

I wish we got the 20 minute version, let yanneti speak for crying out loud.

I miss the DL days where he would force the journalists to listen to him go on forever.

 

[TopT]

Here's every one of his goals from last season. Kid has a wicked one timer. There's nobody currently on the Kings that has a shot this good IMO.

Ilya

 

[ibleedkings]

Ilya

Yea I agree, totally forgot about him.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[kings11]

If you have a player who has all the tools but lacks conditioning and compete level if there was a perfect destination for him it has to be L.A. I’ve gone from being happy with the pick to absolutely thrilled by it.

I just watched his combine interview on NHL tonight and liked him a lot. He comes across as a little awkward but if you get past that he seems a nice kid. He’s really focused on his offensive game and think his key strength is anticipating where the puck is going to be (something Gretzky always felt was key to his game) and getting open. He then said he needs to work primarily on his first few steps from standing when accelerating which I thought told a story. No talk of improvement of his 200 ft game, all offence.

People talk about compete but in the play offs he apparently played 30 minutes a couple of times. That’s a player doing what his coach is asking for so that mitigates to some degree the concerns about back checking etc. His coach clearly trusts him so that makes me think he’ll work on whatever is asked of him. They’ll soon know what they have once development camp opens and my gut is that they (along with the rest of us) will be very excited.

Edit: Found this article after I wrote the post. I used to know his Coach a little bit and he was a pretty good 200ft player before it became trendy, I think he’s a great mentor for him. Good to see that he seems coachable.

Sharpshooting Arthur Kaliyev is just getting started in Hamilton - TheHockeyNews

He comes across as that kid we all know/knew that while we all talked about girls all he cared about was either comics or sports.. The kid comes off as weird because he doesnt really care about anything but hockey! so his answers are like.. well thats not hockey, whatevs.. Kid breathes, sleep, dream, shits, hell he's Arnold in pumping Iron - Hockey>>>>>sex lol

Boys, we got ourselves a good one!!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Yeah even Blake pointed out you don't score 50 without competing.

I'm glad to hear it's not really uncoachable/bad personality stuff, just that he's maybe a bit of an odd bird (frolov!) and that his energy was spent on offense. That sounds perfect for us haha. Slap him on Kopi's left wing.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

John Hoven | The Mayor‏ @mayorNHL 25m25 minutes ago
More
Goal Kaliyev, unassisted

The kid can't stop scoring goals...seriously bummed about this and bringing me down. /sarcasm

 

[Peter James Bond II]

John Hoven | The Mayor‏ @mayorNHL 33m33 minutes ago
More
Garreffa goal from Kaliyev

And...when he's not scoring goals, he's setting goals up. Don't tell him this is not a typical King thing...scoring and setting up goals. Learn the Kings ways: to cycle some and take perimeter shots.
Oh, and don't go to the net...

 

[Steve Zissou]

John Hoven | The Mayor‏ @mayorNHL 33m33 minutes ago
More
Garreffa goal from Kaliyev

And...when he's not scoring goals, he's setting goals up. Don't tell him this is not a typical King thing...scoring and setting up goals. Learn the Kings ways: to cycle some and take perimeter shots.
Oh, and don't go to the net...

He also has a bit of Mike Richards in him in that he catches goalies off guard by throwing the puck at them from the corner. He's scored a few of those this past season.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

They definitely look like geniuses by guessing right. I would hope those that chastised everyone for freaking out after the 22nd pick since they wound up getting AK anyways can read this and see that Management was sweating bullets up until the end of Round 1.

That's great drafting though. Know your opponents and gauge the probability your guy will still be there.

I also love the trade up for Fagemo. I did not want to try and package 22 and 33 to move up in to the mid-to-late teens as I wanted more picks in the top portion than fewer. Picking up an additional #2--and using it on a guy that is basically in Kupari and Thomas's draft class--is pretty sweet. It's just always a bummer when you use a high pick on a dude you could have drafted in the later rounds the year before but, then again, maybe this kid doesn't ramp his game up if not for being snubbed the year before.

That’s exactly it. Kings scouting team was wringing their hands hoping Kaliyev continued to fall to 33. They happened to gamble right.

Goes to show just how weak this draft class was for defensemen. Byram is the only prospect with a potential #1 skillset.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

John Hoven | The Mayor‏ @mayorNHL 33m33 minutes ago
More
Garreffa goal from Kaliyev

And...when he's not scoring goals, he's setting goals up. Don't tell him this is not a typical King thing...scoring and setting up goals. Learn the Kings ways: to cycle some and take perimeter shots.
Oh, and don't go to the net...

How hard was he working though

That "King Arthur" nickname is pretty badass but i'm also a nerd

 

[Nickster]

Artie... when you make the big club please take the jersey number 47... AK47. Then with AK9 and AK11 we can have the assault weapon line.

 

[TruKingFan]

Holy crap this was some serious gambling by Yanetti and team, but boy oh boy did his predictions come to fruition. Well played good sir.


Mark Yannetti, on when the decision to select Arthur Kaliyev was made:
I can tell you we had two guys – you’re going to need 20 minutes for me to talk. We were confident, and when I say ‘confident,’ I mean we’re not just flipping the coin and rolling the dice. Confident doesn’t mean ‘100%.’ It just means we thought there was a better-than-average chance that two guys would fall to 33, and he was a guy that we thought might fall, and like I said, if anyone wants to talk to me for a long time, it played into the Bjornfot thing. Both guys were there at 33, both guys we thought would fall there. [Reporter: Is there a five-minute version?] Yeah, I guess so. So, it’s draft strategy, right? The problem is I don’t think I can do it in five minutes because I’m one of the most verbose human beings on the planet. That’s Dean’s fault, by the way. Blame Dean for me being like this.

So, what happens is you look at 22, and we had a dead heat at 22. So, you have a D and a forward that happen to be our dead heat. And then you look at the draft, and if you look at our list – not any independent list – between 22 and 32, we would’ve had two defensemen left on our list, and then between 22 and 33, we had two defensemen but we had four forwards. I know it doesn’t make sense – that’s why it’s the short version. So, the odds of there being a defenseman there at 33 were less than half of what it was with there being a forward. That’s just your numbers. Now, you look at all the independent lists, and we identified two of those forwards we thought would be the ones to fall, so now it checks another box in terms of what may be there.

So, what we did is we took a slight calculation of risking maybe losing the forward because if we lose those guys, the difference in depth between the four guys that we lose and the ones that would be available at 33 was much less than what you’d lose between a defenseman. So, if the two defensemen are on a scale of 1-100, the difference is 70. If the forwards go, the next forward, it’s like 20. So we kind of took a calculated risk saying that we wouldn’t get defensive value at 33, but we could still get forward value if our list went wrong.

… I can’t tell you how stressful it was watching 27, 28, 29, and then once it got to 31, then we knew we’d get one of the two, and we’re like, ‘oh yeah, we’re geniuses.’ And I’m sitting there the whole time, like, ‘don’t [go poorly].’ I’m telling Rob this is a probability, and if a probability doesn’t happen, then I’d look like an idiot.

So were the Kings not going for the BPA with the #22 pick with Bjornfot? And instead they opted for their greatest need after the Turcotte pick - if somehow Byram fell to us at #5 a forward would have been picked at #22 for sure.