John Klingberg turned down massive offer before free agency

On Friday, it was announced, sort of unexpectedly, that John Klingberg had agreed to a one-year contract with the Anaheim Ducks. It was a surprise that Klingberg agreed to a one-year deal. Sure, it will pay him $7 million, however, it was believed that Klingberg was looking for a long-term deal.

And now we find out that he had a long-term offer on the table! Jeff Marek revealed that the Dallas Stars had offered Klingberg an eight-year deal at at $7 million AAV earlier in the year, but Klingberg’s camp wanted closer to eight years, but at $8 million (which Marek reported at the time).

Since his agent told him to turn him down and we now see what happened in the days leading to his contract with the Ducks, we get why Klingberg fired him. Klingberg switched agents, from Peter Wallen to Newport Sports, possibly in the hopes of making something happen in order to sign a lucrative deal as a free agent. Wallen was Klingberg’s agent when he signed a seven-year, $29.75 million deal with the Dallas Stars back in 2015.

It was believed that the 29-year-old blue liner was looking for a Seth Jones’ type of deal but that none of the interested teams were willing or able to offer that much. The Stars were the ones that came close enough. Last summer, Seth Jones signed an eight-year, $76 million contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks that will kick off next season. His cap hit will be $9.5 million and includes a full no-movement clause throughout.

Newport Sports couldn’t get him the deal Klingberg was hoping for either and now the defenseman has to be quite disappointed with turning down that offer in Dallas in the first place…