John Klingberg hit the ice at Rogers Place on Monday morning, practicing with the Edmonton Oilers for the first time since signing a one-year contract with the team late last week.
The 32-year-old, who has worn No. 3 for the entirety of his career up to this point, will wear No. 36 with his new club, becoming the 18th Oiler to do so.
Klingberg is joining the team feeling better than ever, telling Edmonton reporters Monday that he had been dealing with hip pain his entire career. It’s what helped lead him down the path of a resurfacing surgery.
“It’s been there my entire career,” said Klingberg. “Pain? I’m not sure you can always deal with pain, but it’s always been something that’s been there, but been able to play though.”
Sure, he was able to play, but it was clear his game wasn’t where it once was. And for a defenceman whose bread and butter was his strong skating, puck-moving style of play, that impacted his ability to play at a high level.
In his most recent games with the Toronto Maple Leafs early in the 2022-23 season, everything came to ahead.
“Over the last few years it’s been gradually getting worse and worse, and came to a point last year where something happened during a game, I just felt that there’s no way i’m going to be able to play another 80 games there,” he said. “That’s when we decided to go down that road, and I’m happy I did. I feel so much better, have so much more motion, and no pain, which was incredible.”
While he still felt good about his ability to play with the puck, it was his play without it that was impacted most, he added.
“That’s what I felt was really lacking,” he said. “With the puck, I didn’t feel like I could beat players as often as I could before, but at the same time with the puck, I still felt like I could control the game somewhat the way I wanted to, even if it didn’t get to the level I wanted.“It was for sure a struggle without the puck to be able to react to what players were doing if they were going right or left, I’d react to that. It’s almost like I kept a little bit of a distance just because I didn’t want to give up a Grade-A, easy zone entry or whatever. I’m pretty excited to get back to that and feeling like I can really trust my skating again.”
His decision to undergo hip resurfacing surgery wasn’t a quick choice. He and his agent did his own research, he said, with part of that coming in the forms of conversations with Patrick Kane and Nicklas Backstrom, both of whom have undergone the procedure. As part of his recovery, he spent time with the Ontario Hockey League’s Brampton Steelheads, and is now feeling better than ever in his career.
“The motion I had now is better than I ever remember it to be, so it’s just a matter of getting used to it and work through it,” he said. “I’ve been skating for a while, so I feel like I’m coming along real good and it’s just a matter of obviously getting into the pace of playing against the best players in the world again.”
Klingberg is hoping to do so soon, specifically before the NHL breaks for the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Oilers play nine games before then, giving him ample time to be able to get into action, but more conversations with the team and its medical staff need to happen, first.
The Oilers next play Tuesday night as the Washington Capitals come to town, before squaring off with the Vancouver Canucks for the second time in six days on Thursday.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
