Snapshots: Krug, Maroon, Patera

With Andrej Sekera once again out long-term following surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston notes that the Oilers showed interest in Bruins blueliner Torey Krug last season and wonders if the injury could help re-spark the talks.  Boston doesn’t necessarily want to move Krug but given their depth on the back end, it could make sense for them to use him as a trade chip to get some top-six help up front.

However, with Krug checking in at a $5.25MM cap hit, Edmonton would need to unload a similarly-priced contract as they still have to re-sign blueliner Darnell Nurse and long-term injury reserve would only help until Sekera is ready to return; they will have to be back in cap compliance before they can activate him later in the season.  The team only has a handful of forwards near that price range in Milan Lucic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.  It’s doubtful that Boston would want Lucic and the five years left on his contract so unless the Oilers are comfortable with moving Nugent-Hopkins (something that has seemingly become less and less likely compared to a year ago), there may not be a great trade fit at this time between the two teams.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

• Winger Patrick Maroon – who signed with the Blues last month – is showing no ill effects from the surgery to repair a herniated disc back in May, reports NHL.com’s Lou Korac. He resumed skating last month and has been training fully for the last few weeks.  Getting off to a strong start to the season will be critical for Maroon as he inked just a one-year deal with the hope that he would be able to parlay that into a multi-year extension with his hometown team.  That extension can’t be worked out until January 1st.
• Golden Knights goaltending prospect Jiri Patera has signed with Brandon of the WHL, the junior team announced. The netminder was selected in the CHL Import Draft back in June after spending last season with Cedar Rapids of the USHL.  The Wheat Kings have the rights to a pair of NHL first-round picks as well in defenseman Erik Brannstrom (also a Vegas prospect) and winger Martin Kaut; teams can only have two import players on their active roster so if all three were to make it there, they would have an issue.  However, it’s possible that one of Brannstrom or Kaut could start at the AHL level next season which would allow Patera to suit up in Brandon.