The <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/getting-to-know-defenceman-john-klingberg-ahead-of-his-debut-with-the-oilers">John Klingberg experiment</a> is officially underway as the veteran blueliner suited up for the Edmonton Oilers in two games last week. 

The Oilers have needed an impact right-shot defenseman for quite some time. Honestly, you could say it’s been a hole in their lineup for two or three years now, but I digress.
Initially, I wasn’t a major fan of the Klingberg addition for a handful of reasons. First off, players over 30 coming off a major injury are far from guaranteed to find their previous form. Secondly, he wasn’t just bad in his short, injury-riddled stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he had a poor showing in 2022-23 when he split time between the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild as well.
Klingberg&#8217;s game started to decline about halfway through the 2021-22 campaign and while there have been moments in his career where he’s looked like a legit top-pairing defenseman, it had been a long time since we’d seen him anywhere close to that level.
Still, there were reasons for optimism. Klingberg had reportedly been playing through significant pain for quite some time dating back to his time with the Dallas Stars and as Mark Spector reported last week, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/its-been-there-my-entire-career-rejuvenated-john-klingberg-is-looking-to-rebound-with-oilers">his hips have been an issue going back to when he was a teenager</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
John Klingberg, who is scheduled to play tonight for EDM, just told me that he had double hip surgery at age 18, and again at age 21. He has never played pain free in the NHL — until now, after his latest surgery. &quot;I feel like a kid again.&quot;
&mdash; Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1885027661397057746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Klingberg saying this is the best he’s felt in years combined with reports saying that he looked noticeably quicker during his week plus of practicing with the Oilers had me starting to believe that maybe the Oilers did make a good bet here with the 32-year-old.
He made his debut on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings and surprisingly enough played 16:31 at 5v5, fourth most on the Oilers. That was surprising. First off, the Oilers really didn’t ease him into action. They committed to using him like a legit top-four defenseman.
He looked fine, and that’s not a diss. For him to step in and play a top-four role and play a relatively mistake-free game is quite impressive. The same cannot be said for his game against the Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Take his first shift for example. He made a great play off the endboards to find Connor McDavid in the offensive zone but then threw away a puck in the middle of the ice and got absolutely walked by William Nylander just seconds after. You saw the vision he has and the plays he’s capable of making but also saw how he isn&#8217;t quite back up to speed with both his feet and decision-making.
There was another play in the first period where he had a chance to give the puck to a wide-open Connor McDavid and instead opted to throw a wrist shot through traffic. After the play, the camera even caught the captain sort of tapping his stick on the ice while looking at Klingberg.
In the first frame, I saw four plays that I viewed as having a positive or above-average impact on the game and four that I viewed as negative or below average with a handful of normal plays mixed in.
That first period felt like a microcosm of his first six periods in an Oilers sweater. There have been some good plays and moments where you see him do things that made him such a valuable part of the Dallas Stars blueline for years, but there have also been some real head-scratching moments, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/instant-reaction-an-offside-review-and-a-save-of-the-year-thwart-oilers-comeback-against-leafs">like the offside play that cost the Oilers the game-tying goal late in the third period against Toronto</a>.
I’m not going to be too hard on him for that one play, because there are other reasons why the Oilers ultimately lost that game, but for him to not just slam on the breaks and stop his momentum is a really bad look.
Two games is not nearly enough time to decide if this experiment is ultimately going to work or not. That said, I do believe that there hasn’t been enough good from Klingberg thus far to suggest the Oilers should be done looking to upgrade their blueline.

The <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/getting-to-know-defenceman-john-klingberg-ahead-of-his-debut-with-the-oilers">John Klingberg experiment</a> is officially underway as the veteran blueliner suited up for the Edmonton Oilers in two games last week. 



The Oilers have needed an impact right-shot defenseman for quite some time. Honestly, you could say it’s been a hole in their lineup for two or three years now, but I digress.

Initially, I wasn’t a major fan of the Klingberg addition for a handful of reasons. First off, players over 30 coming off a major injury are far from guaranteed to find their previous form. Secondly, he wasn’t just bad in his short, injury-riddled stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he had a poor showing in 2022-23 when he split time between the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild as well.

Klingberg's game started to decline about halfway through the 2021-22 campaign and while there have been moments in his career where he’s looked like a legit top-pairing defenseman, it had been a long time since we’d seen him anywhere close to that level.

Still, there were reasons for optimism. Klingberg had reportedly been playing through significant pain for quite some time dating back to his time with the Dallas Stars and as Mark Spector reported last week, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/its-been-there-my-entire-career-rejuvenated-john-klingberg-is-looking-to-rebound-with-oilers">his hips have been an issue going back to when he was a teenager</a>.

https://twitter.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1885027661397057746

Klingberg saying this is the best he’s felt in years combined with reports saying that he looked noticeably quicker during his week plus of practicing with the Oilers had me starting to believe that maybe the Oilers did make a good bet here with the 32-year-old.

He made his debut on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings and surprisingly enough played 16:31 at 5v5, fourth most on the Oilers. That was surprising. First off, the Oilers really didn’t ease him into action. They committed to using him like a legit top-four defenseman.

He looked fine, and that’s not a diss. For him to step in and play a top-four role and play a relatively mistake-free game is quite impressive. The same cannot be said for his game against the Maple Leafs on Saturday.

Take his first shift for example. He made a great play off the endboards to find Connor McDavid in the offensive zone but then threw away a puck in the middle of the ice and got absolutely walked by William Nylander just seconds after. You saw the vision he has and the plays he’s capable of making but also saw how he isn't quite back up to speed with both his feet and decision-making.

There was another play in the first period where he had a chance to give the puck to a wide-open Connor McDavid and instead opted to throw a wrist shot through traffic. After the play, the camera even caught the captain sort of tapping his stick on the ice while looking at Klingberg.

In the first frame, I saw four plays that I viewed as having a positive or above-average impact on the game and four that I viewed as negative or below average with a handful of normal plays mixed in.

That first period felt like a microcosm of his first six periods in an Oilers sweater. There have been some good plays and moments where you see him do things that made him such a valuable part of the Dallas Stars blueline for years, but there have also been some real head-scratching moments, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/instant-reaction-an-offside-review-and-a-save-of-the-year-thwart-oilers-comeback-against-leafs">like the offside play that cost the Oilers the game-tying goal late in the third period against Toronto</a>.

I’m not going to be too hard on him for that one play, because there are other reasons why the Oilers ultimately lost that game, but for him to not just slam on the breaks and stop his momentum is a really bad look.

Two games is not nearly enough time to decide if this experiment is ultimately going to work or not. That said, I do believe that there hasn’t been enough good from Klingberg thus far to suggest the Oilers should be done looking to upgrade their blueline.

The jury is still out on John Klingberg, but the Oilers need to be looking for upgrades regardless

Edmonton Oilers Jeff Skinner scores goal against Buffalo Sabres

Recent articles from Tyler Yaremchuk

Breaking News