Pretty much this.
Klingberg is a skilled hockey player no doubt, but he has been overrated by stat watchers IMO. Actually watching him in games, he has never been terribly impressive to me. To some degree he has been the beneficiary of playing in a system that fits his skill set and with other players that make it (relatively) easy to put up a lot of points.
Yeah. I think people got way too carried away with the numbers he can pile up.
The reality is, he's not a stud all-around #1D or even really on the cusp of that. He's a top-end offensive defenceman who found a really good fit with a team that plays run'n'gun with some huge firepower up front and a coach who really let's 'em go. And a partner in Goligoski who seemed to really click with him, who is a very good puck-mover in his own right.
It reminds me of the golden era of Christian Ehrhoff with the Canucks. While they were collecting president's trophies, making a run to the cup, dominating special teams, the Sedin Twins were winning scoring titles. Ehrhoff was never anything like a "#1D" or even really a true top-pairing D. But he found a perfect fit for that same type of offensive puck-moving skillset with the Canucks at the time and played a crap-ton of minutes, a lot of them with the Sedins...and collected bundles of points along the way. It wasn't just "leeching" points by any means, his skillset was instrumental in the Sedins' success during those years as well. It was a symbiotic sort of perfect fit.
That's kind of how i see Klingberg and what he's done the last while...and where he's struggling now. If they can get some of the other elements back into balance around Klingberg, i have no doubt he can pull out of this funk and jump right back to looking like the highly productive top offensive defenceman he can be.
That Dallas blueline around him is not very good right now, and has a ton of inexperience. Too much on the plate for a guy who just isn't really well suited for it.
