Inside his house with seven of his college teammates, Minnesota Duluth defenseman Adam Kleber has gotten a glimpse of Buffalo Sabres playoff hockey playing and living with the sons of a playoff hero.
Max and Zam Plante have often shown Kleber the highlight of their dad, Derek Plante, blasting a slap shot past Ottawa Senators goaltender Ron Tugnutt for the overtime winner in Game 7 of the 1997 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. Kleber’s heard the ensuing call from Rick Jeanneret: “Are you ready, Legion of Doom? Here come the Buffalo Sabres!”
Kleber is now looking to make his own postseason magic as the Bulldogs gear up for their first NCAA Tournament run in four years amid a dominant sophomore season from the Sabres’ 2024 second-round pick.
“That would just be a dream," Kleber said about replicating a moment like Derek Plante’s iconic winner. “Scoring an OT goal in a large building like that, that's just everything you could ask for. Just seeing the highlights of the Tampa Bay, Sabres game a [earlier this month], that gives you a little bit extra motivation seeing that crowd and how fired up they were. Hopefully one day, you can be out there making an impact like that.”
Kleber and the Bulldogs are set to face Denver in the NCHC Championship game on Saturday before they begin their quest for a national title in the NCAA Tournament.
The 6-foot-6 blueliner has helped return Minnesota Duluth to national prominence after the program won three titles in the 2010s, including back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019.
The Bulldogs haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 2022, which is their longest drought since 2005 to 2008.
Kleber was one of 11 freshmen brought in by head coach Scott Sandelin prior to the 2024-25 season along with the Plante brothers and his defensive partner, Ty Hanson. In an era driven by NIL and the transfer portal, all 11 are still there, and they’ve helped turn a 13-20-3 record from last year into a 23-13-1 mark in 2025-26.
“After last year, it was such a disappointing year for us,” Kleber said. “Especially for UMD, for the program as a whole, and we talked a lot about our goals and getting back to the tournament. When the season was done last year, and you see all these teams playing in April and late March during the tournament, you're just watching it and it gives you a lot of motivation. We clinched a spot in the regionals. It's really exciting, and it's something we've worked for.”
The NCHC announced on Friday that Kleber was named the conference’s Defensive Defenseman of the Year. Kleber has shined 5-on-5 but has shown his defensive prowess on a Bulldogs penalty kill that’s second best in the NCAA with an 89.2-percent success rate.
Kleber has helped revitalize a Bulldogs penalty kill unit that was the worst in the NCHC last year and 57th out of 64 teams nationally with a 73.3-percent success rate.
The nearly 16-percent jump from year to year is a byproduct of an enhanced swarming style implemented by Sandelin and assistant coach Adam Krause, who played for the Rochester Americans in 2017-18.
Kleber is part of the first group over the boards on the penalty kill, which attacks puck carriers, takes away passing lanes and looks to kill plays along the wall. Kleber has been a human eraser with his stick in these situations and is 10th in the NCHC with 48 blocked shots.
“Our whole team takes a ton of pride in our penalty kill,” Kleber said. “... This summer our penalty kill coach, Adam Krause, one of the big focuses was how are we going to improve that and we changed our systems, our neutral zone format, how we want to run it. The biggest thing we changed, we wanted to be more aggressive.”
Sandelin has watched Kleber develop into one of the best defensemen in the country in a challenging NCHC that has three of the nation's top 10 offenses in goals per game.
The long-time head coach has deployed Kleber – who has the third highest time on ice per game on the team this season at 21:47 – in a number of situations. He’s used Kleber against a team's top line, on the penalty kill and sporadically on the power play when injuries played a factor.
“He's got a pretty good tank on him, so it's easy to get him back out there,” Sandelin said.
Kleber said he feels more “in tune” with his 6-foot-6, 225-pound frame that fits the mold of recent Sabres draft picks like Radim Mrtka and David Bedkowski, both of whom have physically imposing frames blended with effective offensive traits.
More and more, Kleber has learned how to use his frame effectively. Sandelin pointed to Kleber’s tendency early in his career to consistently hold his stick with two hands, which limited his ability to maximize his reach.
Kleber – who turned a minus-9 rating last season into a plus-12 this year – feels he’s played better positionally in the defensive zone, had better gaps to forwards and erased more plays in transition. It’s these traits that have allowed Kleber to be a talented shutdown defenseman.
“I take a lot of pride in it,” Kleber said about playing against top forwards. “The biggest thing is I hate getting scored on.”
Sandelin has led Minnesota Duluth since 2000 with 492 career wins, which is 18th all-time and the third most by an active coach. He’s developed a number of NHL defensemen in his tenure including Justin Faulk, Matt Niskanen and Neal Pionk.
Sandelin compared Kleber to Winnipeg Jets defenseman and UMD alum Dylan Samberg, who stands at 6-foot-4, 216-pounds. He said Kleber is not afraid to throw his frame around to cancel plays and that physicality is something opposing forwards fear.
“Dylan was a left-handed version, Klebs (Kleber) is a right-handed version, but their personalities are a little bit the same,” Sandelin said. “Both big bodies that do a lot of the same things. I used to get after Dylan too, ‘Just go hammer a couple guys’ and Klebs has done that. Some of the hits he's had in his time here, he's knocked some guys pretty much out. Some guys play a little with a little more panic in their game, [Kleber] just plays a calm game.”
