FEATURE: Klingberg taking next steps toward NHL return with Oilers

EDMONTON, AB – When considering his options for where the best place would be to mount his return to the NHL, defenceman John Klingberg said he couldn’t have found a better fit than in Oil Country.

“You just look up and down the lineup and see what kind of team they have – and also, how good they were last year,” Klingberg said about joining the Oilers on Monday. “Seeing how they play and how I can fit in the team and just building on that. I think it could be a good fit.”

“Being here for the first day today, the locker room and how things are set up here for the players is obviously world-class. This is an unbelievable locker room and the facility, whatever the players need, they’ve got it here.”

The 32-year-old participated in his first Oilers practice at Rogers Place on Monday and spoke to the media for the first time since signing a one-year contract with the club after missing more than a full year recovering from double hip resurfacing surgery in December of 2023.

Klingberg will wear No. 36 for the Oilers and was rotating in during the practice as the seventh defenceman before leading the stretches to close out the skate to the cheers of his new Blue & Orange teammates – some of whom he's played with before as a member of the Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs over 11 NHL seasons – including one of his best friends in Mattias Janmark.

"We came up together in Dallas and got real close, and then obviously I left, and ever since then, we've kind of been talking a little saying it would be fun if we got the chance to play again together," Janmark said on Saturday in Vancouver. "You kind of take that for granted when you're young and coming up, and you have it every day, so it will be fun for sure and going to take advantage of that with the great players we have.

"I'm excited to have him back and mostly happy for him to be back playing."

In 633 career NHL games, Klingberg has 412 points (81G, 331A), but hasn't played since Nov. 11, 2023 as a member of the Maple Leafs, suiting up for only 14 games last season and recording five assists before making the decision to end his season early to undergo his procedure.

"It's always been something that's been there, but I've been able to play through it," he said. "But then over the last few years, it's been gradually getting worse and worse, and it came to a point last year where something happened during the game.

"I just felt there was no way I was going to be able to play another 80 games, so that's when we decided to go down that road and I'm happy I did. I feel so much better. I have so much more motion and no pain, so that's incredible."

The decision to have surgery started him down a long road to recovery that took another big step toward completion on Monday, and he couldn't be more excited to get on the ice and begin working his way back up to NHL speed in hopes of returning to the lineup before the League breaks for the 4 Nations Face-Off next month.

“I feel incredible,” he said. “I have way more motion, no pain anymore, which is exciting. I feel great and I'm very happy to be here now.”

The Oilers are overjoyed to add a defenceman of his calibre to the lineup considering his pedigree as an offensive defenceman, recording a career-high 67 points (including the most assists by a defenceman with 59) across all 82 games during the 2017-18 season with the Stars, whom he spent eight seasons with as a fifth-round pick (130th overall) at the 2010 NHL Draft.

For Knoblauch, Monday's practice was the first step towards getting him adjusted to the speed of the NHL game and the systems he’ll need to familiarize himself with in Edmonton. A big boost to the defenceman's ability to adjust is that he's been on the ice for a number of months training with the OHL's Brampton Steelheads, so the conditioning aspect is more limited to his ability just to get back up to the speed of the League.

"We met him this morning and talked about the system so he's comfortable out on the ice," the coach said. "Obviously, he's got to feel comfortable, and he's been on the ice for a long period of time, and now we have to get comfortable with what we see. It's difficult to just join in mid-season, but you think of the level of player that he is, John will adapt quite quickly."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said it'll be a huge relief having him on their side instead of playing against him, knowing exactly how good he can be when playing at his best from a lot of battles over their careers.

"Always tough to play against, for sure," he said. "It's nice when a guy like that joins you and you don't have to face him. From what I remember, he was so shifty on the line and coming down on you too. So we're excited to see him. Obviously, he's been a high-end player in this League for a long time now, so I'm definitely excited."

The Swede said he’d been playing through hip pain for most of his career, but says he's feeling the best he ever has on skates despite not playing an NHL game for over 400 days.

“The motion I have now is better than I ever remember it being, so it's just a matter of getting used to it and working through it. I've been skating for a while, so I feel like I'm coming along really well, and it's just a matter of getting to the pace of playing against the best players in the world again.”

Before making his decision to have the surgery, Klingberg felt he was impeded the most when he didn’t have the puck, finding it difficult to react to opponents’ lateral movements and making quick adjustments due to his hip issues. That directly translated to a downturn in his defensive game, which he knows will have to improve when he inevitably gets back into the lineup with the Oilers.

“Obviously a big part of my game is positioning, playing with the puck and creating offence. But also, I want to be reliable on the defensive side as well, and I haven't been over the last few years, which I know that's something that I'm going to have to come back and prove so I can be some kind of a corner piece in a successful team, and that's how I look at it,” he said.

“For me, it's important to come back and obviously contribute with the puck, but being reliable defensively as well, and I think that's something that I hope to prove and I’m pretty confident that it's going to be a lot better just because the way I move.”

Klingberg even went as far as consulting with other NHL players who've gone through the surgery – names that include Patrick Kane, who's had a resurgence over his last two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings after having the same procedure back in 2022-23 when he played only 19 games for the New York Rangers.

"I did a lot of research before I ultimately decided to do it, and Kane was a big piece of that," Klingberg said. "I reached out to him, but also Nicklas Backstrom and there's a few other guys that have done the same surgery back home in Sweden that have played on it for a few years as well. Before going in and deciding to do the surgery, I did my research together with my agent, speaking to a lot of different doctors and other things that you need to know before you ultimately decide to do it.

"I got great feedback from it and obviously keeping tabs with Kane as well through last year and this year as well. He's feeling good, and I think the most exciting part is that it's going to get better and better every week and every month that goes by, which is really exciting."

Both Klingberg and Coach Knoblauch are unsure of an exact date for when the blueliner will make his return to action but are hoping he’ll be able to return during the nine games the Oilers have left before the NHL breaks for the 4 Nations Face-Off after Edmonton's game against Colorado on Feb. 7.

"The plan is to get into two games before the break. When that is, I'm not sure," Klingberg said. "This is my first practice today. I met with the coaches, and we'll have to talk with the medical team and everything about that as well. But as I said, if I just look at it from my own side of perspective, it would be nice to get it in before the break."