In the wake of his career-surviving major surgery, it was a hip, hip hooray moment for John Klingberg when he signed his one-year free-agent contract in Edmonton—five years after being in the 2020 playoff bubble with the Dallas Stars when they were two games from winning the Stanley Cup.
Klingberg, who was probably living on pain-killers because of serious hip issues before his last NHL game on Nov. 11, 2023 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, doesn’t know where or exactly when he’ll be playing with the Edmonton Oilers but he knows where he’ll be staying.
“It’s nice moving back into the hotel where I spent almost 70 nights (JW Marriott),” laughed Klingberg, who was the Stars’ best player in that magical playoff run until problems with both hips required hip resurfacing in late 2023—the same surgery Patrick Kane had and he’s in his second season with Detroit, with 30 points.
The Oilers were a no-brainer for the 32-year-old, who wants to win, obviously, and played with Oiler wingers Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry in Dallas, as well as with Mattias Ekholm internationally for Sweden.
“You look up and down their lineup, you see how close they were last year (to winning) and there was mutual interest before this. I had really good talks with Stan (Bowman), Kris (Knoblauch) and Paul (Coffey),” said Klingberg, who also reportedly had interest from the Leafs and Ottawa.
In hip resurfacing, the femoral head isn’t removed but it is trimmed and capped with a smooth metal covering. The damaged bone and cartilage within the socket area are removed and replaced with a metal shell.
Sounds major and it is, especially on both hips, but Klingberg was skating last April and May, then harder in August, before he graduated to practicing with the OHL junior Brampton Steelheads, He’s now back on a no-risk-maybe-a-nice reward shot with the Oilers on a pro-rated $1 million contract with a $350,000 signing bonus).
The right-shot defenceman Klingberg, who is wearing No. 36 here in a tribute to his late grandfather Olof’s birth year, says he “sneaked into the Oilers locker room in the bubble but now that I’m here…it’s unbelieveable, world-class.”
“You can hide wherever you want,” joked Klingberg.
Maybe from the media, but it’ll be tough for the veteran of 633 NHL games (412 points) to hide on the ice because he’s a defenceman. It’s going to be hard stepping into play after being out for 14 months. It is like chasing after a barrelling train that’s left the station. But after stops with Anaheim, Minnesota, and Toronto after leaving Dallas, these Oilers are his ticket to ride.
Klingberg skates with Oilers Monday
At practice Monday, he was flying around, rotating in and out, but might get work with Darnell Nurse in a game after another three or four more practice days.
For now, he’s certainly worth the gamble based on his track record of moving the puck north to forwards—a “why not?” Oilers proposition just as Evander Kane was when he had his falling out in San Jose, and Corey Perry was when Chicago cut him loose.
When he’s ready to play—he wants to get games in before the NHL break (Feb. 8 for the Oilers)—he’ll likely take fellow righty Troy Stecher’s spot in the six-man defence line-up, with Stecher going back to being the seventh defenceman.
“The big part of my game is possession, creating offence but I want to be reliable defensively which I haven’t been the last several years. I have to prove I can be somewhat of a corner piece on a successful team,” Klingberg said.
“The motion (skating) I have now is better than I’ve ever had. No pain, which is exciting. Pain has always been there but I was able to play through it. Yet over the last few years, it got worse and worse. It got to where I was thinking I could never play another 80 games (season). That’s when we decided to go down that (surgery) road. I’m happy I did.
“I lost a lot, especially without the puck. I had to react to what other players were doing with the puck. With the puck, I didn’t feel I could beat players as often as before but I still thought I could control the game somewhat. For sure it was a struggle without the puck if the players were going right or left and I had to react. It was like I kept a bit of distance because I didn’t want to give up a grade A (chance).”
‘You can’t teach talent’: Paul Coffey
Edmonton Oilers assistant coach, and NHL Hall of Famer, Paul Coffey is tickled to have Klingberg.
“You can’t teach talent, you can work with it and I’m looking forward to doing that,” said Coffey. “He’s obviously got it (veteran skill). It’s not like we’re bringing in a kid who’s spent four years in the OHL or a kid out of college. This is a seasoned veteran, he’s played under high pressure, played important games.”
After watching him skate Monday, Coffey thinks Klingbergs needs more practice reps before drawing into the Oilers’ lineup. The question is whether the Oilers needed another puck-mover to go with Evan Bouchard as opposed to a defensive D in the top 4?
“You can probably never have enough of either but you can definitely not have enough puck-movers, Coffey said. “Whether you’ve got Connor (McDavid) or Leon (Draisaitl) up front, the key to success is getting the puck out of your end as quickly as possible, and that doesn’t mean a dump or a rim. It’s getting back quickly, and having the right intellect to put the puck on somebody’s stick. He can do that.”
In the playoffs, the farther you go, there’s usually more defending, puck battles behind the net, defencemen with long reaches and big bodies are crucial.
“It gets slower, the ice gets heavier,” said Coffey, who nevertheless opted to go with the better skater Philip Broberg during the third-round Dallas series, sitting the bigger, more aggressive Vinny Desharnais.
“It was a no-hit series. We were having trouble moving the puck. We needed more speed and put Broberg in there. The rest is history.”
Klingberg won’t be getting much powerplay time here, not with Bouchard running the show but that’s fine with Coffey, who conceded one of Klingberg’s strengths as he’s walked the offensive line is his hesitation (head-fake) movement, like Sergei Zubov.
“Yeah, that’s a good comparison. He also reminds me of Larry Murphy. Little better skater, no disrespect to (Hall of Famer) Larry. He had ice in his veins. He could hold onto the puck forever,” said Coffey.
“Here’s the thing. John is going to teach Bouchard. I’m not saying he’s going to be doing stuff with Bouch after practice but Bouch can watch him (games), a seasoned veteran. He can see how John head-mans the puck, his angles in defending because they’re two righties,” said Coffey.
“Credit to Stan Bowman (for this signing). He inherited some holes and he’s filling them.”
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