On January 17, the Edmonton Oilers signed free agent veteran defenceman John Klingberg to a one-year deal at a projected cap-hit of $1.74M. Klingberg is a 32-year-old Swedish defenceman who most recently played in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but only appeared in 14 games for the team due to a hip injury that caused him to be placed on LTIR. Ever since his most recent NHL appearance in November of 2023, Klingberg has spent his time recovering from a double hip resurfacing procedure.
At first glance, this signing may seem like a perplexing decision by Edmonton’s management. Klingberg was once a superb offensive defenceman, but his best years are far behind him, and his most recent underlying defensive results in Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim and Toronto have all been ghastly. Per Elite Prospects, the Oilers are currently projected to be the oldest team in the NHL; is a 32-year-old defenceman with major injury issues and abysmal defensive metrics what this team really needed?
But while it’s reasonable to be skeptical, I believe this signing could end up looking like a fantastic bet by the Oilers. Or at the very least, it has the potential to.
Can Klingberg still be a useful player at this stage of his career? What are his specific strengths and weaknesses? Where does he fit best on this roster? In this article, I will attempt to answer these questions as best as I can, and explain why the potential success of this signing will be contingent on the coaching staff’s deployment strategies and expectations of the player.
An analysis of Klingberg’s career results
Klingberg was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2010 and spent the vast majority of his career there, a tenure that includes a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2020. Ever since, he has played games with the Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Oilers will be the fifth different NHL team that Klingberg will play on.
An analysis of Klingberg’s career results
Klingberg was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2010 and spent the vast majority of his career there, a tenure that includes a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2020. Ever since, he has played games with the Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Oilers will be the fifth different NHL team that Klingberg will play on.
EvolvingHockey has a useful tool called RAPM (Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus). This tool aims to improve upon raw on-ice analytics, attempting to account for external factors that can impact those metrics such as strength of teammates, quality of competition, zone starts, etc. Using this tool, here is a career timeline of Klingberg’s offensive impact on creating scoring chances (RAPM xGF/60) and defensive impact on preventing scoring chances (RAPM xGA/60) at even-strength: