John Klingberg demands a trade following failed contract negotiation.

There are more and more signs indicating that the Dallas Stars' star defenseman may want a change of scenery, and it sounds like he is hoping to get one sooner rather than later.

On Friday National Hockey League insider David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was a guest on the NHL Network, and it was during his appearance there that he dropped a big nugget of information regarding the ongoing contract talks between Stars defenseman John Klingberg and the the Stars organization. Pagnotta revealed that the talks had not moved forward in a productive fashion and in fact things had gone so poorly that the long time Stars blue liner asked for a way out of the team altogether.

"They had contract negotiations between the two sides and tried to get towards an 8 year contract extension," said Pagnotta. "They hit a wall and haven't made progress and word started to get out about that, leading teams to inquire about his availability."

It sounds like the Stars tried to work on a solution at this point, but things continued to fall apart in spite of those efforts.

"They were told that nothing was gonna happen at that point and they tried to reconvene negotiations and it just hasn't gotten there. It has been silent to this point with respect to a new extension, but there has been a new development with respect to Klingberg from what I'm being told, according to my sources, he has asked for a trade out of Dallas."

This is a huge blow to the Dallas Stars who have had Klingberg as an anchor on the blue line since he first entered the NHL during the 2014 - 2015 regular season. Klingberg has played all 503 of his NHL games thus far as a member of the Stars and you have to imagine that negotiations went very poorly for him to suddenly want out of Dallas entirely.

The fact that other teams around the league have inquired about possibly trading for him should come as no surprise given that the 29 year old native of Gothenburg, Sweden has long since been regarded as an elite level defenseman in the NHL. Pagnotta adds that the Stars could look to hang on to Klingberg if they are in a playoff spot, but that is currently not the case with the team 4 points out of a Wildcard spot.

"If they fall out of the pack and are not within striking distance of a postseason berth by the trade deadline, they could up their efforts in trying to move him."

It sounds like the Stars have been aware of this trade demand for some time now, so we will see where this one goes.

"This is not something that has occurred recently by the way, this is something that has gone on for a little while. Presumably when contract talks hit a wall and there wasn't any remedying it."