Happy Hockey Day in Canada everyone! Let’s dive into a couple of stories from around the NHL.

The Edmonton Oilers won the John Klingberg sweepstakes — if you can call it that — on Friday, as the club announced they had signed the 32-year-old right shot defenceman to a one-year contract with a $1.746 million cap hit.

Klingberg is attempting an NHL comeback after needing to go through hip resurfacing surgery. Once one of the game’s best puck-moving offensive defenceman, Klingberg’s career hasn’t been the same since he elected not to re-up with the Dallas Stars in free agency 2022.

After eight seasons with the Stars, Klingberg elected to sign a one-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks in an effort to net a bigger contract the next offseason. That plan backfired though, as Klingberg’s offensive numbers took a nose dive. Klingberg’s never shown much defensive ability in his career, so it will be interesting to see if this pays off for the Oilers. He is slotted to compete with the likes of Troy Stecher and Josh Brown for minutes on the right side of the Oilers’ blueline.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Canucks “kicked the tires” on Klingberg, but the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Oilers were the teams with the most serious interest, according to Dreger. Klingberg will not be in the Oilers’ lineup for tonight’s game in Vancouver.

Imagine going into work on Monday and telling your boss that you’re not quitting “for now.”

Bizarre right?

Well that seems to be what’s happened with Simon Nemec and the New Jersey Devils.

During a recent interview translated from Slovak, Nemec, the second overall pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, said, “I can’t remember any No. 2 draft pick that went to the farm for a third year.”

He was then asked about requesting a trade, to which Nemec said: “It’s hard to say, it’s still too early to request a trade. If this situation continues, it will have to be addressed, but for now, this is how it stands.”

That doesn’t sound great, does it? This is another situation to obviously keep an eye on.

The Canucks angle on this bit of news is obviously that the Devils are rumoured to be interested in trading for JT Miller. Nemec, a right-shot defenceman, would almost certainly be part of whatever return the Canucks receive in exchange for Miller. We analyzed eight players the Canucks could acquire from the Devils in a trade involving Miller on Friday, and you can read that story by clicking here!