Report: Carl Klingberg To Sign In KHL
Rangers prospect Carl Klingberg is set to sign in the KHL.
In one of three trade deadline moves, Glen Sather shipped off the productive and effective Lee Stempniak to the Winnipeg Jets for upcoming RFA Carl Klingberg. And now, according to reports, Klingberg will be signing in the KHL:
According to @champ_hockey, #NYR minor-league winger Carl Klingberg will sign with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the #KHL.
— Sean Hartnett (@HartnettHockey) June 12, 2015 Klingberg, 24, had 11 points in 13 regular season games in the AHL and then posted another seven points in 13 Calder Cup Playoff games. While the Rangers never really made it seem like Klingberg was part of the future plans -- at the time we speculated Sather moved Stempniak to create enough cap space to bring in James Sheppard who then didn't really play because of Tanner Glass -- this essentially solidifies the Rangers moving a quality winger for nothing.
Here's Adam's view of Klingberg when we covered the Stempniak trade a few months ago:
Klingberg, meanwhile, is a project; to put it mildly. The 24-year-old has struggled to stick at the NHL level and has a modest 15 goals and 15 assists in 51 AHL games this season. He is 6'3 and 205, so one could see the Rangers wanting to take a flyer on his size. It's a bit unclear why the Rangers would prefer an aging project as opposed to a draft pick, given all the draft picks they've moved the last few years and today especially.
Had Klingberg been signed by another NHL team the Rangers would have received some type of compensation since he is a RFA, but since he's moved to the KHL the Rangers will get nothing from the move.
Thoughts on this?
