The St. Louis Blues could be without defenseman Torey Krug for the entire 2024-25 regular season as the team announced they detected pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle. Krug will spend the next six to eight weeks performing physical therapy that will likely center around pain relief, strengthening, and range-of-motion exercises to see if the joints in his ankle can stabilize enough to perform in professional hockey.
In the press release, the Blues shared that the pre-arthritic conditions stem from a fractured ankle earlier in his career. Krug has dealt with multiple injuries to his left ankle throughout his professional career as he missed time during the 2012-13 season with the Providence Bruins in January due to a sprained ankle. At the NHL level; Krug suffered an ankle injury in the second round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning before re-aggravating the injury in the last preseason game of the year heading into the 2018-19 regular season.
The organization announced that Krug will be reevaluated after physical therapy to see if surgery is necessary. If Krug needs surgery on his ankle, he will miss the 2024-25 regular season. St. Louis could then put Krug and his $6.5MM salary for next season on their long-term injured reserve.
Krug would be entering the fifth year of a seven-year, $45.5MM contract signed with the Blues organization in 2020. Coming off a solid nine-year run with the Boston Bruins; St. Louis brought in the Livonia, MI native to soften the blow of Alex Pietrangelo’s departure to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Over four years in the Blues organization Krug has scored 22 goals and 146 points in 255 regular season games. His points-per-game average is a bit depressed compared to his time with the Bruins but his goal-scoring has seen the biggest drop-off. Krug produced several double-digit goal totals during his time in the American Northeast but has failed to garner even one during his time with the Blues.
St. Louis has attempted to move on from Krug over the past two years largely due to his lack of production on the scoresheet and the fact that he has missed just over 15% of games due to injury over his four years with the organization. Krug infamously blocked a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers last offseason with his No-Trade Clause and the current injury gives context to the lack of trade talks this summer.
Krug and his contract will become more tradeable after the upcoming season as his No-Trade Clause turns into a 15-team No-Trade Clause on July 1st, 2025; but the current injury would do nothing but hurt his value on the market. For different reasons, Krug and the Blues organization will hope for a total avoidance of surgery and a healthy 2024-25 NHL season from the defenseman.