St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong confirmed that defenseman Torey Krug won’t play next season after undergoing ankle surgery this year, shares Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. It will be Krug’s second-consecutive missed season. The news was previously reported in early May, but now comes with official word behind it. Krug’s surgery was to address a diagnosis with pre-arthritis in his left ankle. The injury stemmed from a fractured ankle sustained in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Krug has played in 360 games, between the regular season and playoffs, since sustaining that ankle injury at age 27 in 2018. For better or worse, he looked no worse for wear in the years to follow. He posted a career-high 47 assists in 64 games of the 2018-19 season, and continued to pace-for or top 40 points all the way through his last season in 2023-24. He was mobile and effective for the Blues, bringing a puck-moving energy and snappy offense that the team lacked since moving away from Vince Dunn and Alex Pietrangelo. With Krug out, the Blues were forced to rediscover that spark through the brazen play-driving of Colton Parayko and breakout season of Philip Broberg. Both players will continue to be leaned on, while Krug eyes retirement after 778 games, and 13 seasons, in the NHL.
Other notes out of St. Louis:
- The Blues will get reinforcements for Krug’s absence in the form of SHL prospect Theo Lindstein, who Armstrong says will play in either the NHL or AHL next season per Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lindstein grew into a hardy role with the SHL’s Brynas IF this season – netting nine points, six penalty minutes, and a plus-nine through 44 games. He also contributed five points in 17 games to Brynas’ postseason run. His stat linen may not jump off the table, but Lindstein’s ability to handle responsibility away from the puck was strong enough to warrant a first-round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. He followed that draft selection by winning an SHL championship with Brynas in 2024. Now, Lindstein will take the stride to North America – where his jumpy skating, poised positioning, and quick reactions should all lead to a solid role. Fans should expect the 20-year-old to begin the year in the minor leagues.
- Armstrong also shared with DeFranks that the Blues will not be utilizing any buyouts ahead of July 1st. There aren’t many aged and costly contracts on the team, especially with Krug’s $6.5MM deal set to be placed on long-term injured reserve. Perhaps the most unreasonable contract would be the $4MM due to Nick Leddy this season, though Armstrong has emphasized Leddy’s guaranteed role in next year’s lineup. Leddy scored five points in 31 games last season. With no contracts set to be cut, the Blues will enter the postseason with an estimated $5.03MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.
“I think if we came back with the four that ended the year (Parayko, Fowler, Broberg, Faulk), if they played a whole year together, it’s not the best top four in the league but it’s certainly above average,” he said. “We do want to see what Tucker can do. We do want to see what Kessel can do. We do know what Leddy can do. So we have seven guys there. Now, if you could improve it, yeah, we would look at doing that.”
Doesn’t sound like a guarantee of anything regarding Leddy to me.
They winning the cup next year. Just need to add a 3c.
The blue note better start getting rid of some of these players because they sure haven’t won in the last three or four years with the group they have. I have not bought a ticket for the last eight years due to the laissez-faire of this management.
Dude, the won the cup six years ago.
Why buy tickets? Brett Hull hardly gets any minutes these days.
Last 8 years? That includes the Stanley Cup year and the year before. Laissez-faire?
He didn’t have tickets so I guess he missed it.
He pulled into the Checkerdome parking lot & couldn’t figure out what happened.
Yeah, that 2019 season wasn’t exciting.
Guy is clearly a bit slow.