The next step in Liam Kirk’s fledgling career is perhaps the most pivotal yet.

With his Canadian junior career having been cruelly cut short by the terrible worldwide pandemic, for all intents and purposes Kirk finds himself a free agent without a port of call.

The Arizona Coyotes, the NHL club who drafted the winger back in 2018 and hold his NHL rights for another 13 months, have shown little interest in integrating him into their farm system to this point. That’s a situation that appears highly unlikely to change.

This is where Kirk’s greatest problem lies.

He’s a talented young player but has only a relatively small body of work in the OHL and a short stint in Swedish Third Tier hockey to his name. That allied with the fact he hails from a country that imports few professional players outside of its borders.

However, there has already been interest from Sweden which is a promising start to what will doubtless be a challenging off-season for Great Britain forward.

As reported by Adam Johansson, a hockey writer for SportExpressen, Kirk has been scouted by Mora IK.

As stated in the article filed by Johansson,  Mora’s Head Coach Johan Hedberg confirmed that the club was indeed interested in the former Sheffield Steelers forward “Yes, he is one of several players we look at. I do not want to say more than that.” (quote obtained through google translate)

https://www.expressen.se/sport/hockey/blogg/sillysnack/2021/05/15/vm-spelaren-pa-moras-radar/ 

Hedberg is a former NHL goaltender who had a long playing career before opting to coach.

He coached netminders at the AHL and NHL level before being fired by the San Jose Sharks in December 2011.

Last season was his first in a head coaching role and he turned the HockeyAllsvenskan club around following a poor 2019-20 season.

Mora qualified for the playoffs in 2020-21 and are now looking to build upon a positive start to Hedberg’s tenure.

Mora IK competed in the SHL for two seasons from 2017-19 and has aspirations to get back to Sweden’s top league.

Liam Kirk has no control over which clubs may show interest in signing him for 2021-22.

He does however have an excellent shop window in which to show the hockey world what he can do in the upcoming 2021 IIHF World Championships.

Though currently suffering from a minor coccyx injury, the 21-year-old is expected to make a full recovery in time to face Russia on Saturday.

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