About Last Season: Klas Dahlbeck Performance Review and Grade

Klas Dahlbeck: 2016-2017 By the Numbers

• Age: 25
• NHL Seasons: 3
• Games Played: 43
• Scoring: 2g—4a—6pts
• Ice Time: 13:53 all situations, 13:28 ES, 0:01 PP, 0:24 PK
• 5-on-5 Stats: 45.77% CF, 34.2% GF
• Contract Status: Completed one-year, one-way contract (cap hit $750,000), becomes a restricted free agent in 2017-2018.

Making the Grade

About Last Season

Jamie Kellner

Canes Country’s player-by-player review and grades for the 2016-17 season.

• April 13: Sebastian Aho
• April 14: Klas Dahlbeck
• April 15: Patrick Brown
• April 17: Phil Di Giuseppe
• April 18: Justin Faulk
• April 19: Brett Pesce
• April 20: Victor Rask
• April 21: Elias Lindholm
• April 24: Eddie Lack
• April 25: Brock McGinn and Jay McClement
• April 26: Andrej Nestrasil and Joakim Nordstrom
• April 27: Noah Hanifin
• April 28: Ryan Murphy
• May 1: Derek Ryan
• May 2: Jeff Skinner
• May 3: Jaccob Slavin
• May 4: Jordan Staal
• May 5: Lee Stempniak
• May 8: Matt Tennyson
• May 9: Teuvo Teravainen
• May 10: Cam Ward
• May 11: Others receiving votes
• May 12: Coaching staff and front office

Klas Dahlbeck certainly wasn’t front and center throughout the season. After claiming him on waivers on Oct. 11th, the Hurricanes played him on-and-off until February or so. With Ron Hainsey gone to the Penguins, though, Dahlbeck got a lot more ice time, and ended up playing 43 games on the season. Coach Bill Peters said it best about what Dahlbeck added to the team this year: “Klas gives us a bigger, stronger guy, a physical guys. He’s got a little bite to him in the D-zone.”

But despite the intangibles of the 6’3”, 207-pounder, the stats just didn’t add up for the most part. Dahlbeck hasn’t put up double-digit points in any years, but six points in 43 games (0.14 PPG) was the second-worst among the Canes defensemen who played at least half of the season, behind Matt Tennyson. For a player expected to keep pressure on the puck, he posted a -12 on the season, which may not say as much about him as his line (see: Justin Faulk), but bolsters the feeling that Dahlbeck’s one strength, physicality, may be slightly overstated.

I don’t think this season was really a success for Dahlbeck, and I don’t think he would call it one either. He played 71 games last year with the Arizona Coyotes. This year, 43 games (though he was fighting three guys for one spot for much of the season). He posted a -5 last year; a -12 this year. And being a restricted free agent next year, we’re still a little unsure of his near future with the Hurricanes. However, it’s hard to say he didn’t necessarily meet my expectations, because he performed pretty similarly to how he’s performed in his short NHL career.