St. Louis Blues Torey Krug Reminds Us That Players Are Human

When St. Louis Blues announced Torey Krug woulds would miss the entire 2024-25, most fans reacted in a ho-hum manner or even gave a positive response. Just a day later, hopefully those people were put in their place.

On the surface, the initial reaction is understandable to a point. The Blues brought in Krug as a replacement for a bigger, better defenseman that had captained the team to its only Stanley Cup in history.

There was an up and down relationship with Alex Pietrangelo, but those were still large skates to fill. Krug was never going to be able to do it, even if he was fully healthy.

It was an unfair position for him. He was never a grind it out, shut down defender. He was a power play quarterback, puck mover and quick enough to be a top-pair defenseman.

People forgot that he was also often paired with Zdeno Chara. That covered up a lot of his faults and the Blues didn't have someone like that, so Krug got blamed for a lot of things we should have known were coming.

Thus, it's understandable that there was fan frustration. The way the team went about the 2024 offseason also gave every indication that a season-ending surgery seemed the likeliest outcome.

Doug Armstrong is a shrewd dealer and not affraid to make people earn their spots. Don't forget he traded for Justin Faulk out of nowhere when everyone assumed the team was entering 2019-20 with the same defense that won the Cup.

However, there were just too many moves. The Blues went from not enough defense to wondering how they would keep guys happy and not put people through waivers with one-way contracts. Ultimately, Army knew Krug wasn't likely to play.

But, it's the fans that went straight to the contract or even went so bold as to say the team might be better without Krug that overstepped. It's one thing to criticize the on-ice play, but it's a little far to say the team is better off without someone.

Let's not pretend we aren't all guilty of it at some point though. Each of us has had our whipping boy throughout our fandom.

Krug is the latest in a long line of guys that drew the ire of the fans, especially the keyboard social media warriors. Things got worse for him when he exercised his contractual right to deny a trade to Philadelphia in the summer of 2023.

I may have been the only fan that recognized that he simply did what he wanted to do. He wanted to stay in St. Louis and show that he was worthy of his contract. Sadly, it didn't work out that way in the coming year.

Even I wanted him gone at certain points in 2024-25, but it was more because I felt it was just an unwinnable situation. He would have to play so good to win everyone over that it was unrealistic.

He still stayed and wanted to be part of the solution. Then the news came that he had a degenerative ankle issue that's bothered him for years.

I completely understand, but I also wish we knew more about these things to prevent fans from going overboard. I feel like there would not have been quite so much outrage at guys like Jay Bouwmeester, Colton Parayko or Krug if we knew they were gutting it through hip, back and ankle problems.

Instead, we question their ability and, even worse, their heart. Well, we saw how much it means when Krug spoke to the media.

The defender teared up and showed genuine emotion when talking about how much he struggled to keep going as the injury got worse. Fans talk a big game about him, or other players, not caring and the reality is that he cared too much.

A player that was just collecting a paycheck would have quickly given excuses about the injury. They would have immediately gone for a surgery so they could pick up a check and never even touch the ice.

A player that cares about his team, teammates and the game tries to fight through these things. While we can say they should have more sense, the reality is that athletes get to that level just because they have that mentality in them. No matter the circumstances, they believe them being on the ice, even in a diminished state, is better for the team.

The funny thing is we chide emotions and snicker at men who tear up over anything other than the death of a loved one, but this is the kind of player you should want on your team. You should want a guy that demands so much of himself and wants to help his teammates so much that it physically hurts him to be ripped away from that.

Only time will tell if Krug can have a comeback to the level we saw from Bouwmeester or Parayko. Once they were finally healthy, we saw how wrong we all were about their actual abilities.

I truly hope we get to see that from Krug. Put the money aside and we should all want that for this guy.

He denied a trade when it would have been easier to go, because he wanted to make it work in this city and with this team. He kept trying to find ways to work around his injury because he didn't want to let his teammates down.

The Blues need that kind of mentality from their players. They just need it in a guy that's healthy and can live up to his own expectations.

I hope they get to see that in Krug because there is more talent there than we've been allowed to see. If nothing else, that combined with his clear emotions would show us all that it's easy to forget these guys are human and we judge them more harshly than they actually deserve simply because they make more money than we do.