John Klingberg Jersey Card

Much has been said about the Dallas Stars' disappointing season, but one of the players providing exactly what was expected of him is defenseman John Klingberg, who was one of the best defensemen in the league last year - and three years ago, when he led the entire league for Team Goals While On Ice (with 132).

This season, in just 31 games played (he missed five weeks due to an injury), he's already at 6 goals scored - two fewer than the 8 he scored in 82 games last year - and 25 total points. That's good for fourth on the team, despite playing in 17 fewer games than two of the three teammates who are ahead of him:

There's little doubt that Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov are also having fine seasons, as is rookie defender Miro Heiskanen. I do agree with the Stars' VP Jim Lytes that Jamie Benn could have better numbers, though; until he's 34 (so for the next four-to-five years), Benn should always be flirting with the 40/45-goal mark and the point-per-game ratio - not only does his salary command that, he also actually is that good and important to the Stars, and his power forward style of play is still effective in today's NHL.

Adding star goalie Ben Bishop (currently at 16-12-2 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 31 games) and second-line center (and former Ottawa Senators captain) Jason Spezza to the mix, Dallas absolutely should be able to make the playoffs year in and year out if their support staff does the bare minimum. It just hasn't in the past couple of years...

Klingberg's already 26, entering what should be the prime of his career. If he didn't live in the Age Of Erik Karlsson, along with Victor Hedman, Drew Doughty, Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Mark Giordano, Kristopher Letang, Brent Burns, Seth Jones, and Dustin Byfuglien, I'd say he was the Norris Trophy-winning type, but there is tremendously stiff competition these days.

Hopefully the team helps him reach some level of success.

Here he is sporting the Stars' white (away) jersey (with matching game-worn swatch) on card #GJ-JK from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

I pulled it from an unopened pack in an Upper Deck Mystery Box a couple of weeks ago. He made a Make-A-Wish kid's dream come true with the rest of his teammates around the same time.