Confirmed Signing with Link: [STL] Torey Krug signs with the Blues (7 years, $6.5M AAV)

[ORRMAN]

Krug is great on the PP - terrible everywhere else. He is among the slowest straight-line players in the NHL. He is quick east-west but painfully slow north-south. He has a good wrist shot and an awful slap-shot. Good locker room guy. Dream on if you're hoping he can replace Piet. He gets knocked off the puck easily. I have been among Krug's harshest critics, and I am thrilled we did not sign him to those dollars and years. I do wish him luck, nevertheless.

 

[LGBlues]

No one will boo Krug over this, most Blues fans just don't worship or connect with Petro like they did Pronger.
In fact he may get reverse Brewer treatment - some will like Krug because he is not Petro.

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

Parayko / Krug pairing will be fun I think, Parayko is very capable of taking over the defensive babysitting role that Carlo has had with Krug for a while.

 

[wintersej]

Love this response, was just coming to post it

Krug is so good in the locker room and with the guys. His Twitter shit talking with Marchand and his pregame routines with pasta and on and on. He understand how to connect with his teammates of all kinds. Between that and how hard he tries and how much of a worker he is, captain material, TBH. Just need to protect him at 5 on 5. Blues have someone in Colt that can take hard minutes to free Krug up...but I don’t think playing them together is wise.

 

[wintersej]

Parayko / Krug pairing will be fun I think, Parayko is very capable of taking over the defensive babysitting role that Carlo has had with Krug for a while.

Honestly I have always hated that setup. Bruins took their no offense shutdown d-man and gave him easy matchups and lots of o-zone starts to protect Krug. Poor use of the asset.

Bruins had to because only McAvoy could keep Chara above water.

Would be worse for STL to do that as they don’t have someone besides Colt that can be a matchup guy.

 

[Em etah Eh]

Honestly I have always hated that setup. Bruins took their no offense shutdown d-man and gave him easy matchups and lots of o-zone starts to protect Krug. Poor use of the asset.

Bruins had to because only McAvoy could keep Chara above water.

Would be worse for STL to do that as they don’t have someone besides Colt that can be a matchup guy.

Yeah, what’s Parayko going to want on his next deal for babysitting the 6.5M player? Haha. 13M on two d-men that need their hand held in the d-zone. Sounds like a recipe for success. God forbid Parayko get any sort of long term injury. Bortuzzo and Scandella will be the shut down pair...

 

[Zezel’s Pretzels]

Honestly I have always hated that setup. Bruins took their no offense shutdown d-man and gave him easy matchups and lots of o-zone starts to protect Krug. Poor use of the asset.

Bruins had to because only McAvoy could keep Chara above water.

Would be worse for STL to do that as they don’t have someone besides Colt that can be a matchup guy.

interesting, so you think the Blues would be better keeping Parayko/Scandella together as the shutdown pairing/D-zone faceoff team and having Faulk/Krug together?

 

[MetM]

Bruins fans will miss this. I know I will.

 

[wintersej]

interesting, so you think the Blues would be better keeping Parayko/Scandella together as the shutdown pairing/D-zone faceoff team and having Faulk/Krug together?

You wish you had a Scandella level guy to pair with Krug instead of wasting Parayko is all. Unless STL wants to roll the dice the Boston never would...playing Krug like a regular d-man.

 

[westc2]

Krug is great on the PP - terrible everywhere else. He is among the slowest straight-line players in the NHL. He is quick east-west but painfully slow north-south. He has a good wrist shot and an awful slap-shot. Good locker room guy. Dream on if you're hoping he can replace Piet. He gets knocked off the puck easily. I have been among Krug's harshest critics, and I am thrilled we did not sign him to those dollars and years. I do wish him luck, nevertheless.

Of course he's not a replacement for Pietrangelo. Totally different type of player, and doesn't he play the left side?

 

[Del Preston]

Is Chiarelli still an advisor for the Blues?

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

he's 29 years old, and getting paid $6.5M until he's 36. And people are upset with this signing? I just don't get it.

Are you being sarcastic?

If you think he'll produce and be good defensively for all or most of that time then hey, that's your analysis.

That rarely happens though. I definitely get why people would be upset.

 

[Coach Parker]

Parayko / Krug pairing will be fun I think, Parayko is very capable of taking over the defensive babysitting role that Carlo has had with Krug for a while.

Exactly this. Carklo reminds me of a young Parayko.

 

[BlueNoteCode]

Definitely, but I think Parayko is a great partner for him.

Truth. & it is funny how everybody seems to forget that Parayko—NOT Petro—was widely considered the Blues’ consensus, #1 shut down
D-man during their run to the cup.

Furthermore, swapping a right-shot D for a left will actually balance everything out on the back end; allowing Faulk to return to his natural right side—& in the process regain his dynamic form(?). Parayko should finally be able to spread his wings & assume that #1 spot. & the Blues are also sounding ready to make room for the skilled, yet bruising play of Niko Mikkola.

 

[topshelf15]

Krug went to Bruins of the west...Guess that one extra year was the only holdup

 

[BlueNoteCode]

Idk how good Krug is tbh. He is an excellent special teams player but I've never looked at him as an anchor. Maybe he can be though

Krug doesn’t NEED to be the anchor. Parayko IS the anchor now.
& don’t forget, that during the Cup run, it was PARAYKO—not Petro—that was wildly seen as the consensus #1 shut down D-man on the team. Parayko anchors. Krug generates offense from the backend. Yin & Yang.

Throw in a dash of the assertive heavy play of. Niko Mikkola & I’m .... actually sort of anxious to see(!) PLUS, everybody returns to their natural righty/lefty position, so that’s a positive.

 

[ORRMAN]

Of course he's not a replacement for Pietrangelo. Totally different type of player, and doesn't he play the left side?

He does.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

same thing happened years ago when they promised adam oates to be the second highest paid player after hull then payed someone else more. that was the end of hull and oates.

The notion that the Oates situation is remotely comparable to this is laughable. About all you have right was that Oates was unhappy what he was getting paid relative to what others were getting paid.

The Blues didn't promise him he'd be the 2nd highest paid player on the team. That never happened. [Especially after they had signed Hull to his deal which was paying him over $1 million a year and they had just given Scott Stevens 5 years, $5 million in the 1990-91 offseason; if Oates really wanted to be the 2nd highest paid player on the team, he wouldn't have agreed to a 4-year, $3 million extension in July, 1991 that kicked in after his then-current contract expired.] They did acquiesce to his demands for a new contract (twice) before refusing to budge the 3rd time, just 7 months after he'd signed an extension that he wanted and gave him what he was asking for. GM Ron Caron and team president Michael Shanahan had this silly notion that Oates should at least play out a contract first instead of constantly asking for a new one - or, in the case of the last request, demanding a new contract that kicked in immediately and undid the current one and the extension he'd agreed to.

And for the 1,997th time: no one here has any idea what Pietrangelo was really asking for, but it doesn't seem to stop people from thinking he wanted to be the highest paid player on the team / wanted $9M per / wanted $10M per / wanted $11M per / etc. and leaping to conclusions accordingly.

 

[KPower]

Imagine signing Faulk and Krug and letting Pietrangelo walk.

The blues window has closed.

 

[Wiggleboom]

Love Krug and the years with the Bruins. My concern with him (and why I didn’t want to the Bruins to sign him long-term) is he has shown signs of declining the last 2 years. Not so much on the PP where he is a wizard although his slap shot has fallen off likely due to shoulder injuries.

It is his 5 on 5 play where he went from a borderline 2nd pairing D to I would say the level of a #6. And I can’t see the decline stopping - seems to be getting slower and of course his size will always limit him in his own end. I think the Blues will regret this in 2-3 years.

 

[GoldenSeal]

Stuff like this is why it’s taken 50+ years to win the Cup.

 

[BlueKnight]

It is his 5 on 5 play where he went from a borderline 2nd pairing D to I would say the level of a #6. And I can’t see the decline stopping - seems to be getting slower and of course his size will always limit him in his own end. I think the Blues will regret this in 2-3 years.

You hit the nail on the head Blues are going to regret this and wish they had Pietrangelo

 

[MoPucks]

Our powerplay better be at 30% next few years otherwise I just don't see how this group is going to be competitive. Especially if Binnington is 2020 version instead of 2019 version. I don't mind Krug, but he just seems redundant when you already have Dunn, Perunovich & Faulk on the roster.

 

[EastVillageBlues]

Our powerplay better be at 30% next few years otherwise I just don't see how this group is going to be competitive. Especially if Binnington is 2020 version instead of 2019 version. I don't mind Krug, but he just seems redundant when you already have Dunn, Perunovich & Faulk on the roster.

We will probably need to be a more run and gun style going forward, rather than being tight defensively, assuming the D composition doesn't change from now on.

Losing Petro and Bow in the same year is a massive downgrade in terms of defensive zone coverage and turn overs in the D zone will go way up. The only way to combat that, without trying to shoe horn people into roles that they are not suited for, is to improve on the transition game, and keep possession in the O-zone more; which we now have the personnel for. If they somehow get Dunn resigned, and Perunovich gets in a good amount of games, we would almost be cornering the market on PMD.

We might be able to be one of the better transition, O-zone entry, and threat from the points teams in the league. That's probably where we need to be if we want to find a new identity and be successful. And if Tank is out until late in the season, we will almost certain need another top-6 forward to make that work.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

I don’t have an opinion of Krug one way or the other in a vacuum.

In reality, he’s better but much more expensive version of Vince Dunn and Scott Perunovich. We don’t need that. We need an all around defenseman.

I’d still be livid but signing TJ Brodie would have at least made logical sense if we were going to stab our franchise cornerstone in the back. This doesn’t even make sense for the team.

I can’t help but keep picking on you. What makes you think we stabbed Petro in the back, when by all accounts it was the exact opposite?

He and his agent played hard to get and got dumped. Fire your agent.