Krug says he’ll “have to probably prepare for free agency”

Prior to COVID-19 taking over everything, one of the more interesting Bruins storylines was what was going to happen to Torey Krug at season’s end.

Krug will be an unrestricted free agent whenever the current season concludes, and it appears that he’ll have little choice at this point but to test the market.

Earlier in the season, there were rumblings that the Bruins and Krug had at least had conversations about a new deal, but nothing concrete had happened.

Today, Krug spoke to the media (virtually) after practice — needless to say, free agency was one of the main lines of questioning.

In response to a question from the Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy about how the new CBA had him feeling about a future contract, Krug had this to say:

“I don’t really know what’s going to happen. Just trying to take it day by day and worry about the playoffs right now. We’ll have to probably prepare for free agency, and we’ll see what happens there.”

Krug finished his thought by saying “in terms of what’s going on with the Bruins...that’s probably a question for someone else.”

In regard to that last thought, presumably Krug means that the media will have to ask Don Sweeney what his plans are in terms of making any kind of offer.

Overall, nothing Krug said was really that attention-getting. He’s right: at this point, he’s almost certainly going to have to prepare for free agency, as there’s not much time left before that point.

However, Krug was always going to test the market, meaning he was always going to get to July 1 (in a normal year) and see what was out there. He’d be crazy to not at least listen to offers from other teams.

If you want to be pessimistic about Krug re-signing, he didn’t really offer a ton of “I really want to be here, let’s get something done” type language. But let’s be honest: comments like that are almost always hollow, so Krug not saying much doesn’t really mean a whole lot.

You could certainly tell that Krug was a little tired of talking about his pending free agency, at one point mentioning that he wanted to be respectful to everyone but really wanted to focus on the current season.

In terms of what’s important for him in his new deal, Krug mentioned his family, and how his personal circumstances are much different now than they were when he signed his current deal.

Still, he brought it back to hockey in the end.

“At the end of the day, competing and being a part of a core leadership group has all been important to me...try to build something and be a part of something special, you always want to do that,” said Krug. “There’s a lot of things that go into it. We’ll see, but right now, I’m just focused on this group right here and now, and hopefully helping us win a championship. I’ll have to prepare for whatever’s to come after that.”

Krug has 9 goals and 40 assists in 61 games for the Bruins this season.