*This is a guest post by Jack Danielsen, and part one in a series of posts that will discuss where certain Rangers came from and went to before and after their time on Broadway*
Since 1951, 25 players have worn #8 on their sweater for the New York Rangers, starting with Allen Stanley in 1951 and ending (for now) with Jacob Trouba in the 2019-2020 season. In January of 2014, Kevin Klein was traded for Michael Del Zotto in a player-for-player trade and with that, he became the 23rd player since Stanley to don #8 for the Blueshirts. Klein played a major role on the roster as the ideal depth defender, especially in the Rangers’ Stanley Cup run in 2013-2014, playing in all 25 games. In April of this year, the former Ranger announced his retirement from the game of hockey after playing out his final two professional seasons in the Swiss National League (NLA) with the Zurich Lions.
Seeing current Rangers wear #8, #16, #28, and #10 among others made me pretty nostalgic for the Rangers of 5 years ago. Especially since #8 is currently being worn by Trouba, another physical, right-handed defender with an absolute cannon from the point, every so often I catch myself thinking that it’s Kevin Klein out there. Watching Cody McLeod play on NHL ice has a similar effect on someone as staring directly at the sun does, so this wasn’t as much of an issue last year. Him being left-handed and not a defender helps, too, but the point remains.
Kevin Klein was drafted in the 2nd round, #37 overall in 2003 by the Nashville Predators. He played parts of 4 years in the AHL as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals from 2004-05 to 2007-08, accumulating 19 G, 81 P, and 122 PIM over that span. By this time, Klein had already garnered a reputation that would stay with him throughout his career; this was his heavy, two-way play. He would throw himself in front of the opposing team’s shots and could launch rockets from the point. On top of all of that, he could lay a hard check and if the situation came up, could drop the gloves and hold his own with most opponents. He wasn’t an offensive defender, although he could still chip in with a goal from time to time and get a shot in front of the net to create a rebound. Klein cracked the 20-point mark once in Nashville in 2011-12, typically avoiding flashy offensive moves as that was not the kind of game he played. In his first full season with the Nashville Predators in 2008-09, he was 8th in blocked shots. For the next two seasons, Klein led the team in that stat, only to be dethroned by none other than Shea Weber in 12-13 by just one block. In 2013-14 Klein was struggling, putting up a measly 3 P in the first 47 games of the season with the Predators and in January was traded to the Rangers. He still would have placed 3rd on the Preds in blocks (he still came in 5th place with 94 blocks playing in just 47 games for them before the trade). The Rangers were looking to offload Michael Del Zotto and found a willing trade partner with Nashville, who shipped Klein off to New York in return for Del Zotto.
He ended up finishing with 6 P in the last 30 games of the season for the Blueshirts. Combined with his totals while still in Nashville, this would be the worst season points-wise of his professional career. Thankfully for everyone involved, that did not become the norm and Klein bounced back immediately putting up a career-high 26 points and blocking the 4th most shot on the Rangers in 2014-15. Also, he tied for 3rd place on the Rangers in game-winning goals that year finishing with more than Martin St. Louis and Mats Zuccarello (one of those was shot in with a broken thumb, so that’s pretty cool). He matched that point total again in 2015-2016 only this time placing 2nd on the team in shots blocked while tying with Rick Nash and others for 4th place in GWG. In a match against Pittsburg that year, Klein caught a stick up high that took off a chunk of his ear. He got off the ice and to the locker room, got it reattached, and then went on to score the game-winning goal in overtime. Not quite as tough as breaking your jaw and then only hours later playing with that still very broken jaw but still a peak hockey player move. The 2016-17 season would be his last in the NHL and one where his style of play finally began to catch up to him. Injuries were taking longer to come back from and playing the way he did was becoming increasingly difficult at the NHL level. Still, he came in 3rd in blocked shots and put up 14 P on his farewell tour.
After Klein retired from the NHL in 2017, he decided to head to the NLA to play for the ZSC Lions for two seasons as he still had some more hockey to get out of his system. In his first year in 2017-18, he earned an ‘A’ and had 22 points in 45 contests with Zurich, helping lead the Lions to the league championship that year and take it home, chipping in 3G and adding 9A that post-season. A year like that seemed to entice Klein to stay in Zurich for an extra year and he was promoted to captain for ZSC upon his return. He had yet another productive year putting up 24 points in 47 games in the regular season and was even reunited with former Rangers teammate Dominic Moore towards the end of the season, although it wasn’t enough to repeat as champions as the Lions missed the playoffs by just one point. Ending his career after missing the playoffs was definitely not what he had hoped for. However, after 15 years of playing hockey professionally and enjoying the level of success he had, it was a good run all things considered. He captained the ZSC Lions, helped lead that squad to a National League championship, and won the NLA Playoff MVP award that year. Although he never won an award in the NHL or the Stanley Cup, he did receive votes for the Lady Byng Trophy 4 times in his career, twice with Nashville and twice with New York, at best placing 38th overall in voting. Now that Klein’s retired he’s been able to spend more time with his family. He’s also said that he has plans to open a garage to work on cars and to continue learning knife-making and blacksmithing. I can’t say I saw that last bit coming before I wrote this but hey, to each their own! I’m sure every Ranger fan can get behind wishing him the best of luck in retirement.
