Here's what the Leafs are getting in the newly-signed John Klingberg
Many were surprised by the Leafs' signing of veteran blueliner John Klingberg on Saturday, but for what it's worth, the deal is not a bad one for the Leafs, despite popular public opinion. The fanbase has not been overly happy with the deal, given Klingberg's $4.15M cap hit next season, but the deal is only 1 year and Klingberg is also a vast improvement over Justin Holl when it comes to the offensive impact. Plus, when is the last time you've seen Holl do this in the defensive zone?
While defense isn't exactly Klingberg's strong suit, the Leafs have lacked a second offensive weapon from the blueline for some time. Morgan Rielly has done all of the heavy lifting on the back end in terms of jumping up and contributing on offense. Now, the Leafs have another weapon in Klingberg, who excels at walking the line to open up shooting lanes and also happens to have a laser of a shot.
Defensemen jumping up in the play can provide some solid scoring opportunities, but we don't see an awful lot of it in Toronto, just based on how the Leafs D corps has been built over the last number of years. However, with Klingberg now in the fold, you can expect to see this more frequently:
Klingberg is not the feistiest of defenders, but he's not exactly soft either. He's not going out of his way to throw a hit, but if there's an opportunity to lay a solid hit, he's going to take it.
As mentioned above, the defensive zone isn't exactly Klingberg's favourite place to play, so Sheldon Keefe will have to be cognizant of that and control Klingberg's deployment to prevent him from being exposed. However, with his offensive impacts being as strong as they are and with the Leafs' D corps' predisposition for playing a strong defensive game, perhaps Keefe will be able to adequately shelter him.
Really, in the end, this move was about providing the Leafs with something they needed. There may have been other options out there who had the ability to do a lot of the same things without the same inefficiencies in the D zone, but those options would have come at a greater cost. In a hard cap world, every dollar matters, as Leafs Nation is well aware of.
In the end, 1x$4.15M is not the worst deal for a guy who can do what Klingberg can do - especially when you consider that he carried a $7M cap hit last season. Is he going to get walked at times? I'm sure that he will, but he'll do his fair share of walking guys in the offensive zone as well. Balance, and all that.
| POLL | ||
2 JUILLET | 404 ANSWERS Here's what the Leafs are getting in the newly-signed John Klingberg How do you feel about the Klingberg signing in Toronto? | ||
| Like the term, hate the cap hit | 112 | 27.7 % |
| The term and cap hit are both fine | 135 | 33.4 % |
| I'm fine with the cap hit, don't like the 1 year | 59 | 14.6 % |
| Hate the deal entirely | 98 | 24.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
