Who is Klas Dahlbeck?

Meeting Klas Dahlbeck

If you’re an Arizona Coyotes fan, you already know — Antoine Vermette was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks for Chicago’s first round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and defenseman Klas Dahlbeck.

At first, I was a little bummed — mostly because I like Vermette, and wanted to both see him give the Boston Bruins an extra push heading down the final stretch of the season and see what Boston could offer in return. I thought a fair deal would have been one of Boston’s extra second round picks and Reilly Smith, since Boston is now in all finds of financial trouble and he’s one of three pending RFA’s.

The actual return, though, is pretty good — or so it seems right now.

I’ll get more into what that first round pick will become later on today, but for now let’s focus on Klas Dahlbeck.

Who is Klas Dahlbeck?

Drafted in the third round (79th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Klas Dahlbeck will become the second Swedish player to appear on the Arizona Coyotes roster — that is, unless you count the Samuelsson brothers.

He’s only played in four NHL games in his career — all of them this season — but there’s some high upside to be excited about with Dalhbeck. The former teammate of Oliver Ekman-Larsson was neighbors with Arizona’s superstar growing up, and having that familiar face could be a good thing as Dahlbeck gets acclimated to the new atmosphere — although as far as player toughness goes, Dahlbeck has plenty to spare.

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At six foot two, there’s not a whole lot about Dahlbeck’s size that make him overly intimidating — but between his reliability in his own zone and his smooth skating style, he brings plenty to the table that Arizona’s overabundance of puck-moving defensemen has been lacking. He’s a similar style of player to prospect Philip Samuelsson, although he’s a bit more two-way than the older Samuelsson brother. He’s had a good bit of AHL experience and seems to be a clean passer, so he’s a quality option for Arizona to consider adding to the roster here and now.

He brings a couple things to the table that we aren’t considering, though.

At twenty-three, he’s on the older side of defensive prospects for the Coyotes — and although he’s probably not a top-pairing guy in the long run, he’s certainly the kind of player who could slot in somewhere in the interim.

It’s interesting that they brought on another left shot defenseman — Keith Yandle is one, as is Oliver Ekman-Larsson — but the Arizona Coyotes wouldn’t be the first team to shift a defenseman off his natural side. David Rundblad spent a decent chunk of time for the Blackhawks skating as a left-pairing D-man, although he’s a natural right pairing, and that could be what ultimately ends up happening for the Coyotes.

This could mean, though — as many of us were assuming, but can now likely confirm — that someone from Arizona’s blue line is likely headed out.

The most obvious finger could be pointed at Keith Yandle; he’s a left pairing, he’s been an expensive and attractive package to offer other teams, and he’s always been on the trading block (or so it seems). A couple quieter options could be heading out, though:

– Brandon Gormley (1st round, 2010 NHL Entry Draft) while we all wanted to see Gormley succeed in Arizona, too many players have been developing into true offensive defensemen. There hasn’t been enough defensive security from Gormley, Murphy, or even Michael Stone to supplement the offensive production of Keith Yandle or Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With Gormley still fighting to break the lineup, he could he headed out.

– Philip Samuelsson (2nd round, 2009 NHL Entry Draft) as offensive as Gormley has become, Samuelsson has tried to truly develop into a solid back-end presence for the Coyotes — but if the team ultimately decides to use Dahlbeck on the bottom-three pairing, that pushes Samuelsson out of the lineup. If they move him to the right pairing, he could be a good fit with Ekman-Larsson at some point — but as another left-pairing blue liner, Samuelsson and Gormley could both be pushed out by Dahlbeck’s hybrid abilities. He could, ideally, fill in the role that both of them would have eventually played for the team.

– Andrew Campbell (3rd round, 2008 NHL Entry Draft) it hurts to see Campbell come in and play so well only to get shipped right back out again, but he and Dahlbeck fill nearly identical roles for the Coyotes — if they wanted a Campbell-like player who ideally has a longer career projection, that could mean the end of the line for Campbell in Arizona. He’s performed well enough, though, that a rebuilding team like Buffalo or Toronto could look to pick him up for something decent.

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