The big surprise of this year’s transfer market. Negative. We recently wrote about the fact that he even fired an agent. John Klingberg was finally happy to get a one-year contract in Anaheim, the genesis of his fate this year is a story of greed and eyes that are too big.
He didn’t find a new job until the end of July, more than two weeks after the free agent market opened. At twenty-nine, with 47 points (6+41) in 74 games last year, he was certainly hoping for more than a one-year contract. He trembled that he would be an attractive commodity, as the agent had advised him.
He has already ended cooperation with him.
He could have been clear about his future for a long time already last year. And for good money! Dallas offered him an eight-year contract for $58 million, i.e. $7.25 million per year. However, his agent didn’t think it was enough, so he advised the Swede to reject the offer and wait for the free agent market. Both assumed a contract for 64 million. So they gambled for a paltry million extra a year.
When the market opened, lucrative offers did not pour in. Klingberg was able to collect -28 points in Dallas, the fourth best team in the Central Division, which was the tenth worst record in the NHL. He gradually discounted his claims and asked for at least a seven-year contract for 42 million, i.e. 14 million less than what Dallas offered him for the same period.
Lack of interest. He eventually signed with Anaheim for 7 million for a single year.
Underlined, added up, Klingberg threw 51 million dollars in the trash, i.e. at the current exchange rate, one and a quarter billion crowns. In Anaheim, he will work hard to confirm his price. It will probably never be that high again.
The Swede’s story is somewhat reminiscent of Tomáš Vokoun’s fate. At the age of 34, the Czech goalkeeper had a very good several-year offer on the table after a few great years in Florida, but he also let his agent convince him that he would get more on the free market in the summer. And on a better team, Florida was among the weakest in the NHL at the time.
However, the offers did not come. In the end, Vokuun signed for just 1.5 million Washington, where he didn’t even have a certain number one spot. The native of Karlovy Vary also “fired” the agent for his work, but it did not save his career. The next year he alternated in Pittsburgh, after which he ended up in the NHL.
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