Blues sign defenceman Torey Krug to seven-year contract

Free agent defenceman Torey Krug has agreed to a seven-year contract with the St. Louis Blues worth $45.5 million.

The Blues agree to terms with defenseman Torey Krug on a 7-year contract worth $45.5 million dollars.

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— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) October 10, 2020

Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the breakdown of Krug’s salary over the course of the seven-year deal runs as follows: $4 million in Years 1 and 2, $8 million for Year 3, $8.5 million for Years 4 and 5, $6.5 million for Year 6 and $6 million for the final year of the contract. The deal carries a salary-cap hit of $6.5 million per year.

Krug, 29, has spent his entire nine-year career with the Boston Bruins. An offensive specialist, he has scored at least 40 points in six of the last seven years and had 49 points in 61 games last season.

The Livonia, Mich., native had said in the past that this was his best chance to hit a home run in free agency and he’s done that with this contract.

“I’ve bet on myself. I’ve taken shorter-term deals, less amount of money my whole career now,” he said in September. “This is my time in terms of my value at its peak. I have the ability, I’m in a position now where I need to make the most of it.”

The move almost certainly guarantees the Blues will part ways with captain Alex Pietrangelo, an unrestricted free agent. The Blues are aproximently $500,000 over the salary cap after adding Krug and still have restricted free agent Vince Dunn to sign.

GM Doug Armstrong addressed the Pietrangelo situation in his press conference after signing Krug.

“We tried to sign him,” Armstrong said of his captain. “We used every tool under the CBA to ensure that we could get something done, it just didn’t work out. There’s no good or bad person in this, it’s just the business side of it.”