UFA defender fires agent, signs with agency who is popular among new and former Leafs
Coming into this offseason, just about everyone had thought that former Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg was going to clean up in free agency. Well, unfortunately for him, here we are two weeks later and the 29-year-old blueliner has not been able to secure a deal.. at least not one to his liking.
We do have a bit of an update on the Klingberg front, however. According to Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, Klingberg has reportedly fired his long-time agent Peter Wallen. The hope on Klingberg's end is that with a new agent, hopefully he can double back to one of his preferred destinations and find the right deal. So who did Klingberg sign with? Newport Sports Management.
If the name sounds familiar, it's because several Leafs, both current and former, are clients of Newport's. Those players include:
Ilya Samsonov, Nick Ritchie, Matt Martin, Ilya Lyubushkin, Phil Kessel, Calle Jarnkrok, David Rittich, Nick Foligno and Tyler Bozak.
Now, that doesn't really amount to much in terms of Klingberg possibly signing in Toronto - it's probably just a complete coincidence. Newport also represents some very prominent NHLers in:
Rasmus Dahlin, Anthony Cirelli, Kevin Fiala, Tomas Hertl, Bo Horvat, Erik Karlsson, Travis Konecny, Brad Marchand, Jacob Markstrom, Ryan O'Reilly, Alex Pietrangelo, Steven Stamkos, Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk among many others.
With new representation, I think we can probably expect that Klingberg will land a new deal sooner than later.
