St. Louis Blues: Breaking down the Torey Krug signing
What does the Torey Krug signing mean for the St. Louis Blues?
NHL free agency is off and running. There have been some swerves and surprising signings on the first day, but the most surprising one happened late. Late on Friday evening, the St. Louis Blues announced they’ve signed a free agent defenseman to a long-term deal. But it wasn’t Alex Pietrangelo. Rather, it was Torey Krug.
According to the team, the deal is for seven years and is worth $6.5 million annually. There’s no word yet on the salary each year or the trade clauses, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he has a no-trade clause of some kind.
This almost indefinitely means the Blues are done with Pietrangelo. With Krug on board, they have no cap space left. According to CapFriendly, they’re actually a little bit above the $81.5 million cap ceiling.
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It also means the end for Jay Bouwmeester, though this was a forgone conclusion. The fact that the Blues re-signed Marco Scandella told us this. But still, now there’s definitely no way Bouwmeester’s coming back. His career is likely over.
Krug will likely be on the Blues top defensive pairing because he’s their best left-handed defenseman. Scandella and Carl Gunnarsson are among the other options, but Krug probably has the upper hand. They also have Vince Dunn, but he’s an RFA and it’ll be interesting to see if the Blues manage to keep him around.
Krug was originally signed by the Bruins as an undrafted college free agent after a successful college career at Michigan State. He worked his way up to being one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL. Now Krug finally gets his first big contract. It’s hard not to feel great for someone like him.
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The Blues needed to sign a defenseman. They signed one. It just wasn’t the one everyone was expecting. As for Pietrangelo, he’s got a shrinking market. Keep in mind the Leafs just signed T.J. Brodie earlier this evening, so he’s likely not a possibility there anymore. The Vegas Golden Knights have under $2 million of cap space, which isn’t ideal. It’ll be fascinating to see where Pietrangleo winds up playing.