This season was a rough one for Kings winger Arthur Kaliyev. After being a capable secondary scorer in his first two seasons, things more or less went off the rails in 2023-24. Now, the 22-year-old is believed to have asked for a trade, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

Kaliyev put up a respectable 14 goals and 13 assists in his rookie year in 2021-22 and followed that up with an improvement in 2022-23, collecting 13 goals and 15 helpers despite missing 26 games. Accordingly, there was reason for optimism that he’d take another step forward this season while ideally being able to play a little higher in the lineup.

None of that happened. Instead, Kaliyev found himself a frequent healthy scratch, especially under Jim Hiller who had the interim tag lifted to become the full-time head coach earlier this month.

Along the way, he managed just seven goals and eight assists in 51 games while logging less than 12 minutes a night of playing time. Then, when the playoffs came, he was scratched for all five games in their opening-round loss to Edmonton.

While his stock isn’t at its highest right now, Kaliyev could be an intriguing buy-low candidate for some teams. 71 points in 188 career NHL appearances is relatively decent for a player who has averaged just over 12 minutes a night over that time.

Meanwhile, while he’s a pending restricted free agent, Kaliyev is owed a qualifying offer of just $874K and doesn’t have salary arbitration rights. Coming off the year he just had, it’s hard to see him commanding much more than that on a one-year contract.

The Kings were believed to be open to trading Kaliyev during the regular season (amidst speculation that Kaliyev himself would also be open to being moved) but a suitable swap never came to fruition. Now, they’re believed to be willing to move on from him altogether according to a recent report from Eric Stephens of The Athletic so the asking price will almost certainly be lower now.

With Kaliyev wanting to move on and Los Angeles believed to be wanting to move on from him, he seems quite likely to be moved in the coming weeks.