John Klingberg is a swell fellow. Depending upon whom you ask, he is either capable of moving mountains, parting the Red Sea by just looking at it, or building an ark out of driftwood with hand tools capable of single-handedly saving two of every species of animal on planet earth in 2015.
That may be an exaggeration, but only slightly. Klingberg's impact was huge. One of the biggest areas where you can see his impact is on the power play. In the era before Klingberg, henceforth known as BK, the power play was a source of scorn. After Klingberg, henceforth known as AK, a dramatic improvement took place.
Klingberg made his debut on November 11. The BK sample is admittedly small. His debut was in the 15th game of the Stars' season. In the 14 games prior to his debut the Stars averaged 6.5 Goals/60, 71 Corsi For/60, and 34.68 Scoring Chances For/60 on the power play. To put that in perspective, if that had continued all season the Stars would have ranked 14th in GF/60, 30th in CF/60, and 30th in SCF/60.
In other words, they were mediocre, but they had so much talent that they inevitably were able to score some goals on that talent alone. In those first 14 games, the Stars won only four times and pulled out 12 points.
Enter our friend from Sweden. After he joined the team, the GF/60 jumped to 7.2, the CF/60 jumped to 102.74, and the SCF/60 rose to 51 on the power play. Extrapolating these rates over the full season would have ranked 8th in GF/60, 11th in CF/60, and 11th in SCF/60. After Klingberg got on the scene the Stars had a reasonable power play.
It's easy to assign all of the credit to this one event, but undoubtedly there are other factors at play. Tactical changes made by the coaching staff, the rising comfort level of Jason Spezza, using other forwards such as Colton Sceviour and Patrick Eaves, and the utilization of Klingberg on the top unit all play some role in that increased success. It's fair to say that did make a large impact though.
Going into every offseason, for as long as anyone can remember, the Stars have been looking for a No. 1 defenseman who can be a catalyst on the power play. They still might be seeking that top pairing guy this off-season, but they unquestionably have the power play catalyst spot filled with Klingberg.
It's a matter of preference whether or not you consider him a No. 1 type going forward. If he continues to perform biblical scale miracles like he seems to have done with the improved power play, it will be hard for anyone to say he's anything but that guy.
