It's not often that it happens, but every now and again, an unrestricted free agent plays hard ball and is seemingly unwilling to come down on his asking price, forcing his team's hand to release him to the market only for things to blow up in his face. This is exactly what happened to John Klingberg this summer.
According to Jeff Marek on a recent 32 Thoughts podcast, the Dallas Stars did everything they could to retain the services of Klingberg and lock him up to a long-term deal at a huge salary bump. Klingberg had different plans, however, thinking that there would be a bidding war for his services on the open market and demanded more from the Stars, which GM Jim Nill was unwilling to pay.
Marek had stated on the podcast that the Stars had offered Klingberg a deal in the neighborhood of 8 years at $7.25M per season, while Klingberg held firm to 8 years at $8M per season and refused to come down. In the end, it cost him dearly, as Klingberg departed a playoff team in Dallas where he could have made $7.25M per season and retired a Star and went unsigned through 2 weeks of free agency, fired his agent and was forced to settle for a 1-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks at just $7M.
There's still time for Klingberg to circle back to the Stars next summer, but if Nill feels slighted by Klingberg and harbors some ill will, he simply may not even make the long-time Star an offer to return. Talk about your all-time backfires..
