On January 17, the Edmonton Oilers signed veteran defenceman John Klingberg to a one-year, $1.755M AAV deal. The 32-year-old right shot defenceman went without a contract this past offseason largely due to the hip surgery he underwent halfway through last season—a surgery he is still recovering from. On Monday, January 20, Kris Knoblauch states that it would be at least a week before Klingberg took to the ice for the first time in an Oilers sweater.
The acquisition represents an attempt, well before the anarchy of the trade deadline, to add depth to the blue line, giving Klingberg a chance to develop chemistry with his new teammates.
Breaking down Klingberg’s career
John Klingberg was born in Gothenburg, Sweden to a hockey family: his father coached and both of his brothers play or played professional hockey. Klingberg was drafted in the fifth round, 131st overall by the Dallas Stars in the 2010 NHL Draft. He spent time in the Finnish Liiga, the Swedish SHL, and the AHL before leading all NHL rookie defencemen in scoring in the 2014–15 season.
Klingberg spent eight seasons in Dallas, setting a career best with 67 points in 2017–18, tied for second among defencemen that year. In 2019–20 they made a Stanley Cup Final appearance, losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
Klingberg opted not to re-sign with the Stars after the 2021–22 season and signed a one-year, $7M AAV deal with the Anaheim Ducks. He was traded to the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline but they lost out in the first round of the playoffs.
Last year Klingwberg signed a one-year, $4.15M AAV deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs but sustained a hip injury after playing 14 games with the team, he scored five points in that time.
Klingberg’s playing style
Klingberg is primarily a playmaker, and was known in Dallas as a solid puckmoving defenceman. He quarterbacked the power play in Dallas until the arrival of Miro Heiskanen, though even in his 67 point season, he was not really depending on the power play for points.
Around the time of his career-high 67-point season, Klingberg was considered one of the better offensive defenceman in the league but has not been able to replicate a 50-point pace for four years now. A lot of that is likely due to injury, age, and less quality ice-time, but he is probably going to see more of the same in Edmonton so time will tell if he can continue his puck-moving ways.
Klingberg has unfortunately never been noted as an excellent defender and his on-ice stats back that up. Listed as 6’1″, 185 lbs he is not the burliest fellow in the world. Klingberg’s on-ice relative stats, meaning, how the team does while he is on the ice compared to how the team does while he is off the ice, are largely negative recently, signaling that the team is often better while he is off the ice. That being said, Klingberg fared much better in that respect earlier in his career so he is capable of better play, and an exciting team like the Oilers, with the chance of a long playoff run could turn back the clock for him.
Where does Klingberg fit in the Oilers lineup?
The general clamor among Oilers fans so far this year is that they need to shore up their defence, especially when Darnell Nurse is on the ice. Nurse has proved difficult to find a pairing for. For this reason the assumption is that he will be tested out on a pairing with Nurse.
Believe it or not though, Nurse and his most common D-partner this year, Troy Stecher, have the best Goals % on the team over 25 minutes played together, so a more stat friendly position for Klingberg might be with Brett Kulak. The Kulak-Ty Emberson pair have a 50% Goals% and a 53.1 xG% compared to Nurse-Stecher with a 60.9% and 52.2% respectively. This is not such a small sample size anymore either.
A third option is reuniting Nurse and Kulak who have a 50% goals% and a 59% xG%, then placing Klingberg with either Emberson or Stecher. The main drawback of this is that Nurse and Kulak both shoot left.
So far as fitting in in the dressing room, Klingberg is already known to have a good relationship with Mattias Janmark, who played with Klingberg for four years in Dallas. Klingberg has also played with Corey Perry in Dallas, and Adam Henrique in Anaheim.
Viktor Arvidsson, Klingberg, Janmark, and Ekholm all won gold together with Sweden at the 2018 WC. Moreover, Arvidsson and Klingberg actually played very briefly on the same Skellefteå AIK team in the SEL but whether they played in the same games is beyond my investigative skills.
So Klingberg should get a great big welcome from all his former teammates on the Oilers.
