A fifth-round pick who made an All-Star team
Three hundred and fifty-one assists against 92 goals. That split tells you what kind of defenseman John Klingberg was for 12 seasons.
He is done now. The Swede announced his retirement on Friday at 34, after 700 regular-season games in the NHL.
Dallas took him in the fifth round of the 2010 draft. A late pick, and one the Stars squeezed dry. Klingberg made the all-rookie team in 2014-15 and got an All-Star nod in 2017-18. Eight seasons in Texas, from 2014 to 2022. He defended so he could get the puck going the other way, and never pretended otherwise.
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Six sweaters, and the same ending twice
After Dallas came the tour. Anaheim, Minnesota, Toronto, Edmonton, then San Jose. Six franchises, 443 regular-season points.
His last year was with the Sharks: 27 points in 56 games, 10 of them goals. Still producing on a roster in the middle of tearing itself down.
The playoff ledger reads 43 points in 82 games. And two Stanley Cup Finals lost five years apart, both in six games. Dallas fell to Tampa Bay in 2020. Edmonton fell to Florida in 2025. Same length, same result. Brutal.
Sweden gave him what the NHL never did
No Cup. Two world titles instead, in 2017 and 2018, back to back.
His exit closes a chapter on a generation of attacking European defensemen who came through the draft the hard way. Klingberg was never a first-rounder. He still lasted 12 years at the top and left numbers almost no fifth-round pick gets near.
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