The St. Louis Blues have signed defenseman Torey Krug to a seven-year contract worth $45.5 million.

The Blues get:

Krug, an offensive-minded blueliner who finished sixth among defensemen (min 40 GP) with 0.80 points per game in 2019-20. He also led all defensemen with 28 power-play points in 2019-20.

Fantasy players impacted:

Let's jump to the one player who immediately comes to mind. The Krug signing immediately increases the likelihood that longtime Blue Alex Pietrangelo will sign elsewhere (Vegas?) In fact, Pietrangelo may have signed somewhere by the time you read this. Trying to re-sign a true foundational piece on the first day of free agency is incredibly risky if the player chooses to sign elsewhere. The Blues felt they had to acquire one of the top free agents so that there isn't a major void left on their defense.

Assuming Pietrangelo signs elsewhere, Krug would likely fit in as a top-pairing defenseman along with Colton Parayko, with Marco Scandella and Justin Faulk as the second pair. Perhaps more importantly to fantasy owners, Krug would easily take over as the top power-play option in St. Louis. The Blues don't possess the firepower of a David Pastrnak – Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron power play, so Krug could be looking at a very slight hit to his numbers (remember, Vladimir Tarasenko is injured). Krug's keeper owners shouldn't be too concerned, as the Blues power play wasn't significantly worse than Boston's, and Pietrangelo was able to reach 50 points himself in two of his last three seasons.

Now that Krug has officially moved on, the Bruins might go in harder on an Oliver Ekman-Larsson offer that the Coyotes and OEL can't refuse. With the Bruins' current roster construction, filling Krug's shoes on the power play will present a major challenge. Charlie McAvoy is a strong two-way defenseman, but he doesn't possess the offensive upside of Krug. Regardless, he would benefit tremendously from Krug's departure if the Bruins don't bring in anyone else. Matt Grzelcyk averaged a similar amount of power-play time to McAvoy last season, so he should also be in the first-unit power-play discussion at the moment.

Fantasy players this helps, in order:

McAvoy

Grzelcyk

Urho Vaakanainen

Jakub Zboril

Fantasy players this hurts, in order:

Vince Dunn

Parayko

Faulk

Pastrnak, Marchand, Bergeron

Krug

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Fantasy owners are already discussing this signing in the Forum – give your take here!