As the Edmonton Oilers continue to evaluate options to add to their blue line, the team is reportedly one of the front runners on signing free agent defenceman John Klingberg.

The 32-year-old native of Stockholm, Sweden, last played in November 2023 for the Toronto Maple Leafs but had to have hip resurfacing surgery, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.

But Dreger indicated that Klingberg is close to resuming his NHL career, and that the Oilers, Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators are “among the teams with expressed interest,” while up to seven teams are considered “in the mix.”

Drafted by the Dallas Stars in the fifth round of the 2010 draft, he spent the first eight years of his career there. However, he played for the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild in 2022-23, before spending a brief time with the Leafs. Over his career, he’s scored 81 goals and 412 points in 633 games.

Always known for his offensive upside with good-not-great defence, his game had started to fall off after he left the Stars. He maintained contributions at the rate of a top-three defenceman on the Stars in his final season there, but his tenures with the Ducks, Wild and Leafs all saw his game near that of a replacement-level defenceman, according to Hockey Viz.

His skating had appeared to fall off a cliff in Toronto, but one has to wonder how much of that had to do with the hip issue he had been dealing with. It’s hard not to be concerned about the drop-off in his play, with key underlying numbers like shot attempt share, expected goal share and actual goal share dropping off, too.

There are some positives for Klingberg. He’s a right-shot with size, standing at 6’3, 190 lbs., though he has never been an overly physical defenceman. The Oilers have options on the blue line and if Klinberg signed, with the team, he would likely replace Troy Stecher, who has been the weakest link on the blue line so far this season.

Edmonton has minimal cap space, just $477,218 at the time of writing, according to PuckPedia, but that’s with Josh Brown on the NHL roster. Getting Brown back to the AHL would free up his $1-million salary to sign Klingberg. Any deal is likely for a league minimum, or close to the amount, so that shouldn’t be an issue for the team.

He would surely have some familiar faces in Edmonton, with the Oilers having other Swedish players in a similar age range in Mattias Janmark, Viktor Arvidsson and Mattias Ekholm. Janmark he would know well, given they spent five seasons together in Dallas.

The Oilers under previous regimes have been linked to Klingberg in the past, as in October 2022, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman predicted he would join the Oilers by way of trade that year, something that didn’t shake out.

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.

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