Front office executives will tell you that they never stop working when it comes to improving their respective team, and the same will apply to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Having already assembled an elite roster packed to the brim with talent, the Vegas Golden Knights are bang in the middle of their Stanley Cup window and this front office has shown that they will be aggressive to improve the team if they feel they need to.
So, on that note, the Golden Knights really should pay close attention to the Torey Krug situation in Boston with the Bruins because the defenseman would be an outstanding addition for Vegas.
He is an absolute horse on the blueline who can log monster minutes, he can play physical, he’s a cornerstone of the Bruins’ potent power play and, contrary to popular belief, he’s nowhere near as big a defensive liability as some make out.
Currently in the final year of his four-year $21,000,000 contract, which carries an average annual cap hit of $5,250,000, Krug is set to hit the open market next summer as an unrestricted free agent.
He isn’t the only one, either. There could be a loaded free agent class again next off-season with a glut of big hitters featuring the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Pietrangelo, Braden Holtby and Taylor Hall, although it is likely that a large majority of those players will remain where they are.
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But, going back to Krug, there is no doubt that he is one of the premier two-way defenseman currently plying his trade in the NHL and he would be a significant upgrade on the vast majority of defensive cores in the league.
And we are including the Vegas Golden Knights in that mix. Absolutely with 100 percent conviction.
It is no secret that the Golden Knights lack a big-hitter on their roster and there are plenty of question marks hovering over their blueline unit as a whole.
For starters, as important as Deryk Engelland has been to this franchise, he’s lost a clear step in his game and this could be his final year in the NHL, while Nick Holden is also likely to depart once his current contract expires next summer.
Brayden McNabb and Jon Merrill are both solid blueliners but it is perhaps fair to suggest that top six defensemen is probably their level, and then you have Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore who are the Knights’ best defensemen with the latter well on his way to becoming a horse for this franchise.
You also have a plethora of young studs coming through the farm system and Nic Hague has shown glimpses in his first two NHL games that he has all the tools to eventually morph into a top four defenseman in the big leagues, while the likes of Dylan Coghlan and Kaedan Korczak are exciting prospects.
However, this blueline unit needs and maybe even craves a legitimate top line defenseman who can eat up big minutes, play a solid two-way game, man the power play and contribute 30-45 points a year.
Krug ticks all of those boxes and, with two trips to the Stanley Cup Final on his resume, the left shot would bring a wealth of experience to the Golden Knights and could be an ideal mentor for the likes of Hague or Korzak in the long-term.
He is also considered a glue guy in the Boston locker room so he would fit seamlessly into the Golden Knights culture, which is known for being extremely tight-knit and full of high-character guys.
Let’s now delve into the finer details of what exactly Torey Krug would bring to the ice for the Vegas Golden Knights…