Will An Erik Karlsson Trade Cause A Domino Effect On Torey Krug?
In most of life’s situations you need the first domino to fall before anything else can happen. That seems to be the scenario in the case of the Boston Bruins and Torey Krug at the moment. Now I’m not sitting here and saying that Krug is going to be traded by the Bruins before the start of next season, but with eight defensemen currently on their NHL roster, it feels that at least one of them will be traded at one point or another and Krug could be one of the trade options.
Krug’s name has been thrown around as a trade option by many people because of the recent signing of free agent John Moore and the recent re-signing of Matt Grzelcyk. Both Moore and Grzelcyk play the left side, much like Krug, and come in at a cheaper cap hit than the 27-year-old defender. Though they won’t be able to make up for his talent on the offensive side of things, together they should be able to fill a void that he’d leave on the defensive side.
If the Bruins are looking to trade Krug, or even if they’re just feeling it out and trying to see if he has a market, it certainly feels like his market won’t open up until Erik Karlsson is dealt out of Ottawa. After a less than desirable year for Karlsson, all signs point to the Swedish defenseman being shipped out of Ottawa and getting himself a fresh start in a new spot. When healthy, Karlsson is a terrific shot blocker and a juggernaut on the offensive side of things.
So far the noted teams in the Karlsson market are the Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, and Tampa Bay Lightning. If one of those team’s were to make a move for Karlsson, you’d like to believe that the other teams would still be looking for help on the back end and they could certainly turn their attention to the Bruins puck moving defenseman. It also isn’t restricted to just those three teams. Should Karlsson get traded, his return would set the trade market and would help others teams understand what it would cost them for a guy that’s a step below Karlsson.
Like I said earlier, I’m not saying the Bruins should trade Torey Krug and I’m also not saying I want them too. I just feel that with eight NHL ready defenseman on the current roster one of them will be on the way out before the season starts. If Krug was the guy that the Bruins were possibly looking to trade, it really seems like nothing will happen with him until Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators set the market. With camp just a few weeks away, I guess we’ll find out soon.
Kevin Maggiore (@kevin_maggiore)