Might we have seen the last of John Klingberg with the Edmonton Oilers?

The veteran defenceman was placed on the Long Term Injured Reserve on Wednesday, signalling that he won’t be available during the final few games of the 2024-25 regular season.

The Oilers signed Klingberg back in January as a scratch ticket hoping that the former Norris Trophy candidate could find his game following hip surgery. He scored one goal and four points in 11 games with the club, showing some flashes of high-end skill but struggling with consistency.

Klingberg was sidelined in early March with a lower-body injury and last suited up when the Oilers lost 6-1 on the road against the Seattle Kraken. The injury coupled with erratic play when healthy makes it seem unlikely he’ll play in the playoffs.

The Oilers have had forward Evander Kane on the LTIR for the majority of the season, which has resulted in a bonus cushion of a little over $5 million to replace him on their roster. With Klingberg on the LTIR, Edmonton now has a bonus pool of $6.88 million.

Here’s a breakdown of what this transaction means for Edmonton’s salary cap situation, according to cap resource Puck Pedia…

That $1.3 million in LTIR pool remaining is more than enough to call anybody up from the Bakersfield Condors. Given the Oilers had to play with only five defencemen on Wednesday against the St. Louis Blues, it seems likely that the team will call up a reinforcement for their blueline from the American Hockey League.

Josh Brown inked a three-year, $3 million contract with the Oilers in July but didn’t crack the team’s roster out of training camp. He cleared through waivers in October and has played in only eight games with the NHL club. Brown brings no offence or puck-moving ability but can offer the Oilers some added physicality and toughness.

Travis Dermott was among the players who beat out Brown for a roster spot at the beginning of the season, earning a contract after attending camp as a professional tryout. The Oilers waived Dermott after 10 games and he was claimed by the Minnesota Wild. After nine games, he went back on waivers and the Oilers reclaimed him.

Brown and Dermott are the options with the most NHL experience, as the former has played in 298 games and the latter has played in 348 games. Two younger options with potentially more upside are Phil Kemp and Cam Dineen, who have both only played one game with the Oilers.

Kemp was selected by the Oilers in the seventh round of the 2017 draft and has developed into a solid shutdown defender with Bakersfield. Dineen was a third-round draft pick of the Arizona Coyotes and was acquired by the Oilers in the Nick Bjugstad trade a couple of years ago. He leads defencemen on the Condors in scoring with 43 points in 59 games this season.

Against the Blues on Wednesday, Brett Kulak, Evan Bouchard, and Darnell Nurse all played over 28 minutes while Troy Stecher and Ty Emberson rounded the blueline out with 17 minutes each. Mattias Ekholm has been out for over two weeks and Jake Walman missed the game against St. Louis because of an undisclosed injury.