A fifth-rounder who lasted twelve years
John Klingberg announced his retirement this morning. He leaves at 34, with 700 NHL games behind him and six sweaters in the closet.
Dallas took him in the fifth round in 2010, which is the part of a draft where teams stop expecting anything. He arrived four years later and was named to the All-Rookie team in 2014-15, then made the All-Star Game in 2017-18. Those first eight seasons in Texas produced most of what he built.
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Three hundred and fifty-one assists
Klingberg finished with 443 points. Three hundred and fifty-one of them were assists, close to eighty percent, and that ratio tells you what kind of defenceman he was. He moved pucks. He ran power plays. He was not there to flatten anyone in the corner.
The travelling started after Dallas. Anaheim, Minnesota, Toronto, Edmonton, then San Jose, where he put up 27 points in 56 games last season. The Swede never looked finished, exactly. Teams simply kept finding a version of him that fit for a year.
Twice to the final, twice back empty
He played 82 playoff games and reached the Stanley Cup Final twice. Dallas lost to Tampa Bay in six in 2020. Edmonton lost to Florida in six in 2025. Same number of games, same result, five years apart.
Sweden gave him the medals instead. Klingberg won world championship gold in 2017 and again in 2018.
Camps open across the league next week, and for the first time since 2014 he will not be at one.
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