Krug, 28, said in September that the sides had yet to begin negotiating an extension.
The 5-foot-9 rearguard is entering the final year of his current deal, which carries an annual cap hit of $5.25 million. He's set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Krug has been a staple on the blue line for the Bruins, leading all defenseman on the club in games played (302), goals (32), and points (207) since the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign.
The Royal Oak, Michigan, native tallied six goals and a career-best 47 assists for 53 points in 2018-19 while logging the second-most ice time on the Bruins with 21:18 per game.
When it came time for Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson to seal her place in women's hockey history - to counter the golden overtime goal Marie-Philip Poulin scored in Sochi in 2014 and deliver an Olympic title to the United States - she didn't rush.
Before she bore down on net in the decisive round of the gold-medal shootout at Pyeongchang, Lamoureux-Davidson took looping strides to either side of the ice. Play-by-play announcer Mark Lee, calling the game on Canadian television, described her route as "meandering." Her patience was purposeful. Squaring her skates, Lamoureux-Davidson lifted her left foot and twitched her gloves to fake a wrist shot. Instead, she retained the puck, dragging it from forehand to backhand and back again.
The deke put the finishing touch on an indelible tableau: Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados lunging for her post, too far out to stymie the trickery that won the tournament.
AFP / Getty Images
Why revisit this sequence almost 20 months later? Because women's hockey occupies shaky ground in our sporting topography. The standard of play can be magnificent. The U.S. and Canada, giants of the game, have long tended to thrill audiences whenever and wherever they face off. Yet as the 2019-20 season begins, scores of the world's best players aren't signed to any professional team - a choice born out of their collective dissatisfaction with the available options.
These women - nearly all of them American or Canadian - formed the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, uniting to transcend their sport's defining rivalry and advocate for a single strong pro league. About 200 players have joined the movement, including nine representatives who comprise the PWHPA board.
Two of those representatives? Lamoureux-Davidson and Szabados.
"We play for Team USA, Team Canada, Team Finland, but we don't play for them all year round," Lamoureux-Davidson said in a recent phone interview. "We want to play against the best players in the world during the season as well, whether that's with or against them.
"We need everyone at the table. It's an integral part of making this work," she said. "It's not just one country trying to figure this out. It's the best players in the world internationally."
In September, more than a dozen veterans of the U.S. and Canadian national programs convened in Toronto to participate in the first leg of the PWHPA's Dream Gap Tour, a traveling series of exhibition games scheduled to run parallel to the pro season. The tour heads to Hudson, New Hampshire, this weekend and to Chicago on Oct. 19-20, spotlighting the caliber of play in its ranks at an especially fraught moment for women's hockey.
Citing poor compensation and working conditions, the members of Sweden's women's team are boycotting their national federation, which recently responded by canceling the Four Nations Cup tournament it was scheduled to host in November. Closer to home, the Canadian Women's Hockey League folded abruptly last spring, leaving the U.S.-based National Women's Hockey League as the only pro circuit on the continent - and prompting the conversations that led to the creation of the PWHPA.
Jayna Hefford, the Hockey Hall of Famer who helped lead Canada to four Olympic gold medals and who now oversees the PWHPA, said that the Dream Gap Tour represents an unprecedented show of unity in women's sports. Many of the movement's biggest names have spent their adult lives entangled in their game's great rivalry, the bulk of their work with their country's national program oriented around the goal of beating, depending on their passport, either the U.S. or Canada.
Their encounters are usually hard-fought on the scoreboard, and occasionally between whistles. In all five Olympic finals featuring both nations, the margin of victory has been one or two goals. Between 1997 and 2017, seven of the 15 world championship finals in which they met went to overtime. Six years ago, the teams brawled twice in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics. Those skirmishes involved several players who now headline the Dream Gap Tour together, including Lamoureux-Davidson, her twin sister Monique Lamoureux-Morando, fellow Americans Kacey Bellamy and Hilary Knight, and Canada's Melodie Daoust, Brianne Jenner, and Jocelyne Larocque.
If any hard feelings linger, they have been set aside for now in the name of solidarity.
"Obviously, we don't get along on the ice when we play against each other," American center Brianna Decker said. "But off the ice, we're striving for the same thing."
"It's always, 'Canada against U.S., Canada against U.S,'" Canadian forward Natalie Spooner said. "To show just how powerful this movement is, that we have come together with such a big rivalry between us - it must be something that is so important to all of us."
"We're all playing for the same team here," Jenner said. "We all stand for the same goal."
Kacey Bellamy (left) and Brianne Jenner. Harry How / Getty Images
Primarily, what these women seek is one pro league that can pay several teams' worth of players a living wage. Their ask, they are clear, is not NHL money, but salaries sufficient to make hockey their sole profession - and to prevent them from coming out of a season at a personal financial loss. That's happened in the past, Jenner says, when players have had to foot road-trip costs such as airport parking and meals.
(In the NWHL, which begins play this weekend, some high-end players will be paid $15,000 for the coming six-month season, plus an additional 26% raise that every player is due from a sponsorship and media revenue-split agreement with the league. For road games, they'll get a per diem of $25.)
"The way it's been set up in the past, it's been very, very difficult for girls to be motivated when they get to practice at 9 p.m. at night (after working another job) to push each other to get better," Canadian defenseman Renata Fast said. "The only way we can allow girls to focus on hockey is to provide them with a livable wage."
Lamoureux-Davidson said, "If you're going to call yourself a professional anything - whether that's a real 9-to-5 job or a professional athlete - to be a professional, you have to make a reasonable wage doing so."
The PWHPA's concerns aren't solely related to money. Its members are lobbying for a holistic conception of what constitutes a professional environment - specific elements that a league would guarantee, allowing the athletes to concentrate on playing.
Peter Kneffel / dpa / Getty Images
The little things, the players say, are what add up. Instead of cycling through a rotation of facilities, they'd like each team to operate out of one home arena where players could work out, store their equipment, get their skates sharpened, have their laundry done, and practice at a decent hour. They'd like franchises to employ proper support staff, such as strength coaches and trainers - "We train our butts off," Decker said, a commitment that necessitates regular medical attention - and game-day employees who can take care of miscellaneous tasks around the rink.
"We don't want our general manager behind a camera videotaping our games, rolling out the red carpet for the ceremonial puck drop," Canadian forward Sarah Nurse said.
"I don't want players to be running around the rink before games looking for stick tape," said Liz Knox, a retired CWHL goaltender who is on the PWHPA board. "When we talk about things we want in a sustainable league, we want them to show up and just play hockey."
In that sentiment, Americans and Canadians have found common cause. When tennis legend Billie Jean King, a pioneering voice for women's equality in sport, began advising the PWHPA earlier this year, Hefford said she impressed upon the players the importance of speaking with one voice. At the Dream Gap Tour's Toronto stop, Hefford and a few players expressed the same refrain: that in the throes of the U.S.-Canada rivalry, the women involved respect each other, and share a sense of responsibility to improvethe state of their game.
Tessa Bonhomme, who played for Canada with Hefford and is now a broadcaster for the Canadian network TSN, recalls an incident that evinced this dynamic during her early days with the national program. The summer before the 2006 Turin Olympics, the U.S. cut its longtime captain Cammi Granato, putting a curt end to her Hall of Fame career. The news "rocked" the Canadian dressing room, Bonhomme said. She remembers her captain, Cassie Campbell, summarizing the Canadian consensus: "This isn't right."
"Everyone felt the exact same way - mainly because, yes, we did believe it was wrong, but also because we wanted to face the best U.S. hockey team that could be out there," Bonhomme said. "For us to be backing a player who was, we felt, wrongfully cut, as Canadians against our biggest rival, I remember thinking, 'This is kind of crazy. But at the same time, I can't help but feel for this and be passionate about this movement.'
"It goes back a long way, and it started with both of those young ladies, Cassie and Cammi, really being at the forefront. Those are probably the two greatest leaders to have ever donned a jersey in the women's game. They really set the precedent there, and I think you can see it bleed through here (with the PWHPA)."
Renata Fast (left) and Kendall Coyne Schofield. Steve Russell / Toronto Star / Getty Images
More than a decade later, a new generation of stars has emerged to take up the mantle. Though kickstarting the Dream Gap Tour required contributions from people all over the sport, Decker identified Jenner and American forward Kendall Coyne Schofield as players whose initiative and leadership have been essential these last several months.
Acrimony at the international level hasn't stopped the Americans and Canadians from getting to know each other elsewhere. Decker and Jenner, along with a couple of other Olympians from each of their countries, won last season's CWHL championship together with the Calgary Inferno. The vast majority of Team Canada's national player pool attended U.S. colleges. The rivalry counts not one but two cross-border marriages: Meghan Duggan and Gillian Apps (of the U.S. and Canada, respectively), and Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette.
On the ice, no other matchup has the capacity of U.S.-Canada to galvanize new viewers. In Toronto, Nurse recalled how Canada's dramatic 3-2 victory in the 2002 Olympic final introduced her to women's hockey at age 7 - "I was sold," she said - and kindled her dream of playing internationally. Later this season, her national team will face the U.S. in a touring five-game showcase series, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, on Dec. 14.
Meanwhile, the Dream Gap Tour continues (and is expected to add more dates), serving as a platform for the players to disseminate their call for lasting change.
"I think it's amazing they take that attitude: 'We're going to dream and we're going to push and we're going to make it happen,'" Granato said in a phone interview. "It does take a special group of people to actually have the guts to do that, to have the passion to do that, to understand the game's bigger than them."
"It was pretty special being in the locker room getting dressed, knowing that you're going out there making history, and you're doing it with people that you've played against and that you've been rivals with for years," U.S. defenseman Kacey Bellamy said after the tour's first games in Toronto.
"Fifty years from now, we're going to look back and say, 'Wow, we started this.'"
A goal is scored at the Dream Gap Tour. Anne-Marie Pellerin / Courtesy of PWHPA
The scale of individual sacrifice that will be required to even approach that point has already become apparent.For all of the Olympic veterans at the forefront of the PWHPA, the movement includes several times as many players who reside outside the spotlight, each of whom has forgone a season of their pro career in service to the larger mission.
To Lamoureux-Davidson, perspective is paramount. Even if many active players never sign a contract in the league the PWHPA envisions, she said, their selflessness will have laid the groundwork for that league's existence - and ensured that each player is remembered for much more than a tournament victory or a sublime, historic shootout goal.
"If you're able to step outside of living one season at a time and doing what's best for yourself, then you can see the big picture," Lamoureux-Davidson said.
"At this point, why I am still playing the sport? I just turned 30. I have a young son at home," she continued. "I guess if I had a young daughter, I would want her to have the ability to at least have the same dreams as my son." The same goes for her young nieces, and, for that matter, any girl who might find herself newly entranced by the game.
"It's unfortunate that right now, they simply can't have those same dreams," Lamoureux-Davidson said. "It's on us to make sure that that happens."
You can't discusswho the league's top defenseman is without almost immediately mentioning Hedman. The 6-foot-6 Swede is dominant at both ends of the ice and ranks third among NHL defensemen in points (236) over the past four seasons. Hedman hasfinished in the top three in Norris Trophy voting in three consecutive campaigns, including his win in 2018.
9. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins
Malkin can take over games like no other player in the NHL - when he wants to. The problem is that when he doesn't want to, he can hurt his team, which was the case for much of last season. The two-time Art Ross winner could easily bounce back this season if he's up for it. He at least sounds motivated, and that should scare opponents.
8. Erik Karlsson, Sharks
Brandon Magnus / National Hockey League / Getty
The highest-rated defenseman in our top 100, Karlsson was significantly hampered by injury last season and still managed to record 45 points in 53 games plus 16 more points in the playoffs. When healthy, the smooth-skating Shark is arguably the best offensive-minded blue-liner in the game and a perennial Norris Trophy contender.
7. Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs
Injuries have slowed Matthews over the last couple of seasons, but he's been ultra-productive when healthy, posting more than half a goal per game and over a point per contest in 2018-19. He's among the NHL's best snipers and brightest stars at 22 years old.
6. Patrick Kane, Blackhawks
One of the league's most electrifying players is geared up for another season of "Showtime" in Chicago. The 30-year-old Kane showed why he's one of the most elite players in the game with a career-best 44-goal, 110-point season in 2018-19. Sitting at 938 career points, Kane will become the youngest American-born player to join the 1,000-point club if he can do it this season.
5. Alex Ovechkin, Capitals
You know a player is special when his Hockey Reference page is covered in bold print, signaling a league leader. Ovechkin has won the "Rocket" Richard Trophy eight times and has led the NHL in shots 11 times. Even if he doesn't catch Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goals record, the Great Eight should be considered the best pure goal-scorer in hockey history based on era-adjusted stats.
4. Nathan MacKinnon, Avalanche
Dilip Vishwanat / National Hockey League / Getty
After four decent but not great seasons to begin his career, MacKinnon emerged at age 22 as one of the best players in hockey during the 2017-18 season. Since then, the former first overall pick has notched 196 points in 156 games and enters the season as a Hart Trophy favorite.
3. Nikita Kucherov, Lightning
Sure, he plays on a stacked team, but Kucherov was a worthy Hart winner in June after leading the NHL in points and assists. The dynamic Russian forward's production has increased in all five campaigns since his rookie year in 2013-14, and while it might be hard to top 128 points, he's one of only a handful of players in the league who could conceivably do it.
2. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
Crosby proved last season that he's got plenty left in the tank with his first 100-point campaign since 2013-14. He may no longer be the consensus top talent in the league, but he's still arguably the most important face of the game. It will be a privilege to watch him add to his legacy in the back half of his career as the Penguins look to stay near the top of a competitive Metropolitan Division.
1. Connor McDavid, Oilers
For the second straight season, McDavid is our consensus No. 1 overall player, and rightly so. Nobody's more dominant than 97. He's the most explosive skater the game has ever seen, and the things he can do with the puck on his stick while at top gear are simply remarkable. Watching McDavid play hockey is a treat, and we should never take it for granted.
Leading up to the start of the 2019-20 season, theScore will be counting down the top 100 players in the game today, as voted on by our NHL editors. We'll reveal 10 players every day until the top 10 is unveiled on Oct. 2.
Stone has always been one of the best defensive wingers in hockey, but his positive offensive development has made him a rare commodity. Despite the Golden Knights' first-round playoff exit last season, the 27-year-old exploded for a ridiculous six goals and 12 points in seven games. It will be a treat to see what he can do over a full campaign on one of the league's top clubs.
29. Blake Wheeler, Jets
Wheeler is arguably the league's most underrated playmaker. Only Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid have more assists than the Jets captain over the past two years. There's a conversation to be had that he's a top-five NHL winger, but he's also shown the versatility and selflessness to play center when necessary.
28. Mark Scheifele, Jets
Frederick Breedon / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Scheifele has been a point-per-game player over the last three years for the Jets, culminating with career highs in goals (38) and points (84) last season. He has the ability to be a difference-maker by either scoring goals or setting up teammates as a playmaker and will be looking to help Winnipeg make another extended playoff run after last season's disappointing first-round exit.
27. Roman Josi, Predators
Josi continues to be one of the NHL's best puck-moving defensemen. The Nashville captain excels at generating offense, consistently maintaining favorable Scoring Chances For and Goals For percentages. He's topped 50 points in four of the last five seasons, and averaged more than 25 minutes of ice time in 2018-19.
26. Ryan O'Reilly, Blues
Could 2018-19 have gone any better for the Ontario native? O'Reilly mustered a career-high 77 points in his first year with the Blues and captured the Selke Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, and of course, the Stanley Cup. After such a dominant season, there's no question the 28-year-old is among the best two-way players in hockey.
25. Mitch Marner, Maple Leafs
Marner established himself as one of the game's best playmakers in 2018-19, leading the league with 36 primary assists at five-on-five. While he receives no shortage of attention playing in Toronto, the highly intelligent winger probably doesn't get enough credit for his defensive game. He has an excellent stick and is a threat shorthanded.
24. Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes
Aho was a massive talking point during the offseason after signing an offer sheet with the Canadiens. Carolina quickly matched the offer, which should have come as no surprise considering the 22-year-old is coming off of a breakout season when he led the Hurricanes in goals (30) and points (83).
23. Mikko Rantanen, Avalanche
Michael Martin / National Hockey League / Getty
Rantanen took another step forward last season, collecting 31 goals and 87 points to exceed his 2017-18 numbers despite playing seven fewer games. The Finnish forward benefits from playing on one of the best lines in hockey, but he's proven over the last two campaigns that he deserves a spot on Colorado's explosive top unit.
22. Brayden Point, Lightning
Point enjoyed a breakout third NHL season, notching career bests with 41 goals and 92 points in 79 games. The dynamic, two-way center also proved to be a lethal weapon on the man advantage, leading the entire league with 20 power-play markers.
21. Tyler Seguin, Stars
Only Alex Ovechkin fired more shots on goal than Seguin over the past two years. He's had at least 70 points in every season since joining the Stars in 2013-14, and it's quite possible the best is yet to come.
Leading up to the start of the 2019-20 season, theScore will be counting down the top 100 players in the game today, as voted on by our NHL editors. We'll reveal 10 players every day until the top 10 is unveiled Oct. 2.
Johnny Hockey had his best year during the 2018-19 season, setting personal bests in goals (36), assists (63), and points (99). His efforts helped lead the Flames to their best regular season since 1988-89 when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. Gaudreau didn't find the same kind of postseason success with just one point in a five-game first-round loss, so he'll be chomping at the bit for a shot at playoff redemption.
19. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning
The NHL's best goalie was a major reason why Tampa Bay was so dominant in the 2018-19 regular season. Vasilevskiy posted a career-high .925 save percentage en route to claiming the Vezina Trophy for the first time, and he's improved in each of the last three campaigns. Can the 25-year-old get even better this season?
18. Leon Draisaitl, Oilers
Andy Devlin / National Hockey League / Getty
The big German went scorched-earth in 2018-19 and became the first Oilers player to record a 50-goal season since Wayne Gretzky in 1986-87. Draisaitl isn't just a goal-scorer, either. His career-best 55 assists ranked second on the club to only Connor McDavid.
17. Taylor Hall, Devils
After he was limited to just 33 games last year, it can be easy to forget that Hall is one of the NHL's most dynamic players. The 27-year-old won the Hart Trophy with 93 points in 2017-18, but next season could be a career year for one of the most powerful skaters in the league after the Devils beefed up in the offseason.
16. Brad Marchand, Bruins
Marchand may not be the most popular player outside of Boston, but his impact on the ice is undeniable. Often known more for his ability to pester the opposition, Marchand took his game to another level last year, reaching the 100-point mark for the first time in his career and then equalling Ryan O'Reilly for the league lead with 23 postseason points.
15. Steven Stamkos, Lightning
The captain of the NHL's most watchable team is a huge part of its fearsome offensive attack, and he remains one of the league's brightest stars. Stamkos was also a major contributor to linemate Nikita Kucherov's 2018-19 Hart Trophy exploits, pouring in 45 goals and a career-high 98 points.
14. Brent Burns, Sharks
Brandon Magnus / National Hockey League / Getty
Will Burns ever slow down? It appears the 34-year-old rearguard is only getting better with age. Burns has reached the 60-point mark in five straight campaigns, including a career-high 83 point season in 2018-19. His 101 goals in that span lead all NHL defensemen by a wide margin of 17.
13. Patrice Bergeron, Bruins
Should the Selke just be renamed the Bergeron? The Bruins pivot has been named the NHL's top defensive forward a record-tying four times. He likely could've added to that total, but injuries have held him out of a combined 35 games over the past two years. He may be 34 now, but he's coming off a career-best 79 point season despite skating in just 65 contests.
12. Aleksander Barkov, Panthers
Barkov emerged as a premier two-way player last season after several years as a Selke Trophy contender. The 24-year-old added elite offensive production to his defensive acumen, putting up a career-high 98 points, 18 higher than his previous best, and helping bring a lot of optimism for the future in Sunrise.
11. John Tavares, Maple Leafs
Tavares' first season with Toronto was the best campaign of his career from a production standpoint. The former New York Islanders captain came within three tallies of the 50-goal mark and racked up 88 points while playing every game. Few centers in the NHL possess Tavares' scoring touch, and his quick hands make him very difficult to contain.
The Toronto Maple Leafs star trolled Senators forward Scott Sabourin during an exhibition contest between the two sides on Sept. 18, and video of the incident went viral.
"I thought it was a little bit disrespectful, to be honest," Borowiecki said on Tuesday, according to The Canadian Press' Lisa Wallace. "We're not all blessed with Auston Matthews' talent, unfortunately, but I truly wish I was. Some of us have to do it the hard way."
Sabourin, 27, has spent seven years in the American Hockey League and is slated to make his NHL debut this season after cracking the Senators' roster out of camp.
"I'm not sure Auston appreciates what it's like being a fighter down there, it's a role he never had to play," Borowiecki said. "It's really tough when you know you're going to fight double digits every year and ride the bus around and get paid $70,000."
The Leafs host the Senators in their season opener on Wednesday night, which will be the first of four meetings between the two division rivals this season.
"We are going to name a captain this season," Canucks head coach Travis Green said. "It's a special moment. Something our fans should be able to witness firsthand. We'll make the announcement Wednesday at our home opener."
Horvat was expected to be given the "C" entering the 2019-20 campaign.
Vancouver hasn't had a captain since Henrik Sedin served in the role from 2010 to 2018.
