"2. DETROIT RED WINGS Where is Krug spending his family isolation time? In his home state of Michigan, of course. He played under-18 hockey with Compuware and college hockey at Michigan State. He grew up a massive Red Wings fan and even played for their current coach, Jeff Blashill, in the USHL. Now Detroit’s GM happens to be a franchise icon in Steve Yzerman. The fit could not be more perfect. The Red Wings also happen to have veterans Trevor Daley and Jonathan Ericsson going UFA this summer and already dealt pending UFA Mike Green away at the deadline in February. They have loads of cap space, and Krug would be a good veteran leader to help the power play and take pressure off the next generation of prospects, including Moritz Seider and Dennis Cholowski. https://www.giantsonlinefans.com/blackha...ck-sharp-jersey Working to Krug’s advantage: the draft lottery and draft will have come and gone by the time he goes to market, meaning he’ll know if the Wings have won the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes. 3. VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS The Golden Knights traded top prospect Erik Brannstrom last winter and shipped Colin Miller in a salary dump last summer. They ended up chasing D-corps upgrades from that point onward. They scored an experienced veteran with a year left of term in Alec Martinez during trade-deadline week, but he’s more of a depth stopgap at this point of his career. The Golden Knights lack a single blueliner among their top five prospects according to our Future Watch 2020 panel of NHL scouts. Krug could fill a crucial long-term need, https://www.giantsonlinefans.com/blackha...e-pilote-jersey especially because his all-around game, including his work on the defensive side of the puck, has long been underrated. The challenge for the Knights: a static cap of $81.5 million would leave them with less than $9 million available. They’d have to move a body out to make room for Krug. Oddly enough, Martinez’s $4-million AAV could be what stands in the way. 4. MONTREAL CANADIENS The Habs already established themselves as aggressive spenders – or attempted spenders – when they tried to offer sheet Sebastian Aho last summer. Might they consider taking a run at Krug to deepen a D-corps hurting for depth behind veterans Shea Weber and Jeff Petry? Mega-prospect Alexander Romanov’s KHL contract expires this spring, https://www.giantsonlinefans.com/blackha...n-lehner-jersey and he’s a strong best to begin next season in Montreal’s starting lineup, but he’ll be playing on an entry-level AAV. Also, Petry is Krug’s old teammate from Michigan State and could theoretically help woo him. Whether Montreal chases a big-fish UFA depends on how GM Marc Bergevin feels about the franchise’s near future. It has 14 picks in the 2020 draft, a burgeoning farm system as is, and three key cogs – Petry, Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher – enter the final seasons of their deals and would be major rental-trade pieces to dangle should the Habs decide to commit deeper to a rebuild. Chasing Krug would only make sense if Bergevin believes his team can contend in the near future. It’s more likely than not that he does. 5. FLORIDA PANTHERS Wait – wasn’t it reported that Panthers ownership may ask to the club to trim $10 million in payroll? So how could they be sleepers to pursue Krug? Think of it as a projected reallocation of resources. It’s no secret GM Dale Tallon badly wants help on defense. He has Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle as anchors, but supposed stalwart Mike Matheson was an awkward enough fit with new coach Joel Quenneville that ‘Q’ even made Matheson part of the defenseman-as-forward experiment. The Panthers, even with the rumored payroll cuts, won’t be hurting for cash considering two of their top forwards, Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov, are 2020 UFAs. Sure, the Panthers would love to keep both, but they could easily cost $15 million combined. Florida also has two if not three extremely promising forward prospects who could push for lineup spots next fall, most notably Grigori Denisenko, who is expected to arrive from the KHL and sign an entry-level pact next month, and Owen Tippett, who acquitted himself well in his first full pro season with AHL Springfield this year. The Panthers, then, could decide to distribute their spending differently. https://www.giantsonlinefans.com/blackha...arpenter-jersey They could bet on Denisenko, Tippett and perhaps Henrik Borgstrom making an impact next season to support Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, and they could redeploy their resources to pursue Krug. He’s not a strapping shutdown blueliner by any means, but that doesn’t matter as much in today’s NHL. Mobility and all-around talent are paramount."