Man of the Week: Ioannis Kaldis

KHL.ru’s weekly column goes on with Ioannis Kaldis. The Severstal defenseman was instrumental for the Steelers’ success, earning the call as the top blueliner of the week.

Last week, the Cherepovets blueliner was outstanding, tallying four points (two goals and as many assists) over the course of three games, finishing with a plus-3 rating. Kaldis played a pivotal role for Severstal, netting the decisive, game-winning goal in overtime during Thursday’s dramatic 4:3 victory against Avangard. Beyond his offensive contributions, he also excelled defensively, registering three hits and blocking four shots as he anchored the Severstal blue line. Across twenty games, he has now 16 points – he’s the second scorer in the team, trailing only forward Ruslan Abrosimov.

Early Years

Born on 30 September 1995 in Canada, in St. Laurent, Quebec, Kaldis made his mark in the NCAA with Cornell Big Red (Ithaca, New York) where he played 133 career games and amassed 85 points and became the program’s most-productive defenseman since the 2002-2003 season. Earlier, he played in the British Columbia Hockey League. In his freshman year with Cornell, in 2016-2017, he had one goal and 13 assists for 14 points, in 35 games. His senior year saw him register 5 goals and 19 assists for 24 points in 29 games in 2019-2020. He was a four-time-All-Ivy League first-team member and earned All-America second-team honors in 2020. Kaldis had a strong collegiate career and showed excellent potential, even wearing the ‘C’ for Cornell in his senior season.

Ranking up

After his successful collegiate career, Kaldis signed a two-year AHL contract with the Bakersfield Condors, affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers, in May 2020. Before his KHL move, the Quebecoise d-man also had a stint overseas, appearing in the Austrian IceHL with the Dornbirner EC during the 2020-2021 season: in 34 games he recorded two goals and 11 assists for 13 points, and 10 penalty minutes.

In the AHL over his first three seasons with Bakersfield he appeared in 132 games, scored 13 goals, added 51 assists for 64 points, and finished with a minus-2 differential. He also appeared in the AHL Calder Cup playoffs in all his seasons with the Condors.

Move to the KHL

After his stint with the Backersfield Condors, Kaldis moved overseas to sign a contract with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL. Back when he first made his KHL debut in Belarus two years ago he showed enough promise: in the 2023-2024 season he recorded 62 regular-season appearances, with seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points. That constituted a solid “rookie” year at KHL level for a rearguard making the transition overseas.

In his sophomore season, after moving to Andrei Razyn’s Severstal, he stepped up his game further: in 2024-2025 he played 60 games, netting three goals and posting 20 assists for 23 points, with a plus-3 differential. He also logged an average time-on-ice of about 19:10 minutes per game. All of which indicated that Severstal had come to rely on him not just for his defending but for his transitional and offensive contribution from the back end as the Steelers will try to get to the second round in this season’s playoffs.