Wild's John Klingberg returns to Dallas with chance to put 'a lot of history' behind him (2024)

DALLAS — Wild general manager Bill Guerin and his Ducks counterpart, Pat Verbeek, were in a game of chicken.

Guerin wasn’t necessarily looking to add another defenseman at the trade deadline, but when Anaheim’s John Klingberg came up in the days ahead of March 3, he was interested — for a price.

After the veteran Klingberg’s camp miscalculated his market last summer in free agency, the Ducks signed him to a one-year, $7 million contract with the full intention of trading him at the deadline, hopefully for a first-round pick.

Then Klingberg had, let’s call it, a tough season in Anaheim. Because of that, Verbeek couldn’t get anything close to what he originally figured the blueliner would command.

Early on deadline day, Guerin made an offer and said he was determined to stand firm on it.

“We were not going to bend over backwards,” Guerin said. “When we’re making deals, we’ll go a certain distance.”

Verbeek said it was not enough and indicated he’d just keep Klingberg if that was the best he could do.

Guerin hung up but figured he’d hear back. Sure enough, a few minutes before the 1 p.m. MT deadline, Verbeek called back. Guerin, in a conference room at the Calgary Marriott, sarcastically sprinted to the cell phone, much to the amusem*nt of his staff. He grabbed the phone from senior adviser Ray Shero and coolly asked Verbeek, “What’s up?”

Billy G is buzzing 💨#mnwild pic.twitter.com/XhNGjSeOcR

— x – Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 3, 2023

Verbeek said he’d do the deal for pretty much the original offer: a 2025 fourth-round pick and minor-league defenseman (and pending free agent) Andrej Sustr, plus the rights to 2019 sixth-round pick Nikita Nesterenko. The Wild and Nesterenko weren’t expected to come to a contract agreement anyway, so Guerin agreed, and the swap was done just in the nick of time.

“That’s what makes it exciting,” Guerin said. “We feel we did the right thing.”

Klingberg, 30, scored two goals and nine points and was plus-3 in 17 regular-season games for Minnesota. After missing the first two playoff games because of a lower-body injury, sustained in the practice after the season finale in Nashville, he has been a factor in the past two games, scoring a goal and four points and with a plus-4 rating.

And he’s done it playing against a Stars team he spent his first eight NHL seasons playing for.

Klingberg has played lots of playoff games in Dallas, but Tuesday night, the 2010 Stars fifth-round pick will play his first playoff game in Dallas wearing an opposing sweater. He’s still tight with former teammates like Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen, saying, “It’s a friendship that will last forever.”

He texted with many of his ex-teammates before the series, “but we also said we’ll chat in two weeks,” he said.

With high stakes in a 2-2 series that is now a best-of-three, it’ll surely be awkward for Klingberg to wear enemy colors in front of the fans who cheered him on for years.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Klingberg insisted. “Obviously a lot of history, but I’m not going to try and think too much about that.”

Klingberg played 552 games for the Stars. And despite ranking 14th in North Stars/Stars history in that category among defensem*n, he’s in the top four in virtually every offensive category, including third in franchise history amongst blueliners in assists (303) and points (374):

But things didn’t end pleasantly for Klingberg in Dallas.

The Stars reportedly put a long-term contract offer on the table before the 2021-22 season. There were three offers involving different prices and terms, including an eight-year deal with an average annual value in the neighborhood of $7.25 million ($58 million total), according to Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek.

Klingberg’s camp felt that was under market value after the contracts signed by Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse (eight years, $9.25 million AAV) and Chicago’s Seth Jones (eight years, $9.5 million AAV) in the summer of 2021. It’s believed Klingberg was looking for $8 million per year on a variety of terms.

Klingberg rejected the Stars’ offers, and there was little to no negotiation last season, and the Stars tried to trade him in advance of the 2022 deadline. They didn’t receive a good enough offer in the midst of a poor season from Klingberg, so they kept him as an “own rental.” Free agency hit and the market for Klingberg was clearly nowhere near what his camp thought it would be. Klingberg briefly reengaged the Stars in July, but they had moved on by that point, signing forward Mason Marchment among others.

Klingberg fired his agent, Peter Wallen, hired Craig Oster of Newport Sports and signed the one-year deal with Anaheim with the hope of reestablishing his career and earning a big payday this offseason.

Klingberg has to know at this point that he’s never getting that reported $58 million back.

Asked if he’s looking at this playoff run with the Wild as a chance to show the league he’s the same player who performed at such a high level for years, Klingberg said, “Absolutely. I know I’m a good player. But it’s been a tough year. It’s been a few frustrating years, individually, but sometimes you get caught out there trying to do too much and I think that’s a good thing. But if you can control that, it goes a long ways.”

Guerin has no problem if Klingberg uses the Wild to reestablish himself. It’s a two-way street if the Wild can use Klingberg as a means to get by the Stars and beyond.

“If you play a long time, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to do that a couple times in your career — reestablish yourself,” Guerin said. “It’s hard to go through, but you just have to do it. You’ve got to establish yourself when you’re young. You’ve got to establish yourself if you have a bad year. As you get older, you’ve got to continually establish yourself that you can still play.

“You’re always kind of doing it. It’s a contract year for him, and he’s been real good for us. We’ve got no complaints at all. He’s been really solid.”

Especially compared to Anaheim, where he was part of a Ducks team that allowed a league-worst 4.09 goals per game.

During Klingberg’s 50 games with the Ducks, he had 24 points, was minus-28 and was on the ice for 4.15 expected goals against per 60 minutes of five-on-five, per Evolving-Hockey. That last number is 0.8 expected goals against worse than the previous worst for a player since NHL analytics first started being kept in 2007-08. And to be blunt, that can’t just be pinned on playing for Anaheim, because his metrics fell apart during his final season in Dallas, too.

In his 17 regular-season games with the Wild, he was on the ice for 2.85 expected goals against per 60 minutes of five-on-five, which still isn’t good but is way better than Anaheim, where he was 0.63 expected goals against worse than his teammates. In Minnesota, relative to his teammates, he was 0.45 expected goals against worse.

Despite the numbers, Guerin felt it made sense to add an offensive defenseman with such a pedigree for the low cost and with no term beyond this season.

“We could afford him. We could afford the salary. We could afford to pay what they wanted,” Guerin said. “I think everybody was looking at his year. Well, he had a lot of good years before that. People have off years. Hey look, I was there (too in my playing career), and sometimes just a change of scenery can do it. He was in a much different situation with Anaheim than he is with us.

“So, to me, to get a player of that caliber and skill and ability to run a power play, it was kind of a no-brainer.”

Before the series, former Stars teammate Joe Pavelski said Klingberg “is a guy that likes this time of year.”

And he does have a history of playoff success, with 39 points in 61 games.

“We had heard and watched obviously that he elevates his game in the playoffs,” coach Dean Evason said.

Evason thinks Klingberg has been solid in his own zone, too.

That’s impressive considering the right-shot Klingberg is playing on the left side for the first time in his NHL career. The Wild have gone this route because rookie Brock Faber impressed in his two regular-season games, earning a spot in the playoff lineup at least the first four games.

Brock Faber's collegiate career ended abruptly. But the games he plays now are arguably more important.

Faber is contributing on a playoff run for his hometown Wild. His friends and family tell @joesmithnhl their perspectives.

“It’s just surreal."https://t.co/ir2ZHJQXvw

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) April 23, 2023

So if Klingberg wasn’t going to play on the right with right-shot Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba and Faber in the lineup, he’d need to play on the left in lieu of veterans Jon Merrill and Alex Goligoski.

In the final game of the season in Nashville, the Wild gave Klingberg a look to the left of Faber for parts of two periods.

“We communicated. Obviously we had to go ask the player,” Evason said. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got no issues with it.’ That’s what you want to hear as a staff. I’ve had guys like Goligoski where we said, ‘Are you comfortable playing wing,’ and he goes, ‘I don’t care where I play as long as I play.’ That’s what you want from your group. You want it from the individual when it happens and then you try it, trial like we did, and we felt very comfortable making that decision.”

Klingberg said he’s gotten caught a few times leaning toward his right, but other than that, he’s been fine with the transition. And he’s enjoyed playing with Faber.

“It looks like he’s been playing for a lot longer time than four or five games,” Klingberg said. “He’s going to be a real good defenseman in this league.”

Said Faber of Klingberg, “For how big he is, he has some of the quickest feet I’ve ever seen. He’s so smooth and silky.”

Klingberg admits he had a hard time in Anaheim, so he’s been excited to be part of such a well-structured Wild team. In Game 4, with the Wild trailing 2-0, he saved a goal by sweeping a puck off his goal line that would have given the Stars a 3-0 lead. Fourteen seconds later, he cut the deficit to 2-1 with his first playoff goal in a Wild uni.

John Klingberg jumps into the counter attack and finds twine with a great shot to cut the Wild deficit back to 1!#mnwild pic.twitter.com/0LMV6v0wUd

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) April 24, 2023

Klingberg said saving the goal was a reaction to an initial mistake.

“First of all, I probably shouldn’t chase the puck down behind the net,” he said. “Because the puck came in front of the net, I was trying to cut the passing lane off but obviously he got kind of a breakaway, so just desperation mode to try and save a goal. Then I kind of saw that we had an odd-man rush, so I joined the rush.”

Simply put, Klingberg loves playing this time of year and hopes to help the Wild advance past the first round for the first time since 2015.

If he plays a major role, it will go a long way toward earning him a nice contract somewhere this offseason.

“I think it’s just a more exciting time to play,” Klingberg said of the postseason. “I always want to be a difference-maker out there, and that sometimes can bite me in the ass as well. Sometimes I think I have to put a leash on myself because you really want to be out there and be a difference-maker, but I feel like if I just try to play a simple game and let the game come to me, a lot of times that’s when good stuff is happening instead of trying to chase it.

“I think in the playoffs, that’s really kind of how it is. Every play matters.”

A replay of our #mnwild live room. Lot of great questions. Thanks to everyone who joined! https://t.co/Q0JDfeRroH

— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) April 24, 2023

— The Athletic’s Joe Smith, Saad Yousuf and Dom Luszczyszyn contributed to this report.

(Photo: Brad Rempel / USA Today)