Report: Boston Bruins Close To Trading Torey Krug, Panthers ‘Pushing Hard’

UPDATE: An NHL source has confirmed the Florida Panthers are one of the teams in on Torey Krug and they are ‘Pushing Hard’ to acquire the unrestricted free agent to be from the Boston Bruins.

As was reported here on September 14, the Boston Bruins have been fielding trade offers from teams that are interested in acquiring the rights to negotiate with unrestricted free-agent-to-be Torey Krug. According to a Barstool Sports report on Sunday, Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney has narrowed the field down to four teams and the Bruins’ points leader on the blue line for the last six seasons could be traded Monday.

‘Spittin Chiclets’ Host ‘Rear Admiral’ tweeted Sunday afternoon that the Florida Panthers, Detroit Red Wings, Vegas Golden Knights, and Colorado Avalanche were the top four contenders to acquire the defenseman that will be highly coveted on the open market if he gets there on October 9, the start of free agency.

Look for the Bruins to trade Torey Krug's rights tomorrow to a team looking for exclusive negotiations before UFA opens on 10/9. Colorado, Florida, Vegas, and Detroit are among the suitors.

— Rear Admiral (@RearAdBsBlog) September 27, 2020

A text to Krug’s agent Lewis Gross by Boston Hockey Now was not returned Sunday. Two NHL sources did say though that there has been considerably more chatter regarding Krug this weekend.

Prior to the pandemic pausing the 2019-20 NHL regular season, many around the league expected Torey Krug to hit paydirt if he became a UFA. However, with the financial uncertainty created by COVID19 and a flattened salary cap at $81.5 million, some are wondering if he will get the mega-deal he believes he deserves. 

“I’m very opposed to that,” Krug said bluntly when asked if, given that uncertainty, he’d do a one-year deal and hope he can earn even more if and when things get better financially. “I’ve bet on myself and I’ve taken shorter-term deals and less amount of money my whole career now. So this is my time, in terms of my value at its peak, and I have the ability, and I’m in a position now where I need to make the most of it. So I’m very opposed to something like that. I’ve done it long enough now and that’s the situation I’m facing.”

Sweeney has praised Krug’s performance with the Bruins since he helped recruit him to sign with the Boston Bruins out of Michigan State as an NCAA free agent in March, 2012. He’s also been non-committal to retaining Krug on an extension. 

“Well we haven’t found a landing spot,” Sweeney said earlier this month. “Listen I respect Torey coming in as a rookie free agent and making our hockey club. “I only hope that we made the moves to accommodate what he and his family and agent feel he has earned. I would be the last person to begrudge any player trying to make the best decision for them and their family, and in a perfect world it’s with us, but we know that the world is anything but perfect right about now. So again, I don’t have an update on an individual contract level.”

Torey Krug had nine goals and 40 assists in 61 games this season and then collected six assists in 13 playoff games.