Joined: Jul. 2018
Posts: 349
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A lot of people seem to be surprised that Krug's signing is viewed so favorably despite the 7 year term, while term seems to be an issue with Brodie's signing.
The thing is, Krug has the ability to run a top tier PP, which has massive value. He's likely better at it than Pietrangelo was, so he can outperform his deal in the early going to make up for the eventual overpay years. Krug, despite some weird takes saying the opposite, has actually always been good defensively. He didn't face top competition in Boston, but when your team has McAvoy, and previously playing on the same team as prime Chara, why would you ever use a good defender instead of one of the best defensive D available ? Maybe Krug isn't capable of playing as well defensively against tougher match ups, but against 2nd and 3rd lines he's a stud, and given that he is going to a team that already has Parayako, who will either be a strong partner creating a very strong top pair, or free Krug up to eat the 2nd pair match ups, Krug's skill set fits like a glove.
Fit is so important in getting value out a defensemen. Krug is a PP specialist, who is great offensively and defensively at 5 on 5, and the only knock is we don't know if he is capable of those 5 on 5 results if he plays against top lines. So a team that needs a PP1 guy, and already has an elite shut down D can make the best use of Krug, and St. Louis has that written all over it.
This is going to be a controversial take, but I think Krug at $6.5M for 7 years, will actually be a better value for the Blues then Pietrangelo would be at say $8.5M for 7 years. Not because Krug is better, but because the fit is so good, it takes full advantage of his skill set, and the difference between Krug and Pietrangelo isn't worth $2M or more in cap space, at least not for a team that already has a better shut down option than Pietrangelo.