Whatever Happened To...Marcus Kruger?
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- After reuniting with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 18/19 season and after his 3-year contract had expired, Swedish forward Marcus Kruger left the league behind and took his talents back across the pond to Europe. So that begs the question: whatever happened to Marcus Kruger? Watch to find out!
#NHL #WhateverHappenedTo... #MarcusKruger #ChicagoBlackhawks #CarolinaHurricanes #VegasGoldenKnights #Hockey #IceHockey #Sports #Story #History
Become a Patron here: / oddmanrush
Twitter: / oddmanrushyt
Please feel free to like, subscribe share or watch some of my other videos and thank you very much for watching!
M. Kruger was a beast. Incredible on the face off (seriously, like better than Toews) and remarkably dependable as a defensive fwd, who would never, ever cost your team and would chip in on offense here and there. There has never been a better 4th line center; and when you're talking about the best hockey league in the world, that says something.
Your username makes me suspicious that you’re Marcus Kruger, popping in to pump up your own tires
One of Kruger’s 4 points in the 2015 playoffs was a game winning goal in TRIPLE OVERTIME
Hawks fan here. If I had to pick my 5 favorite hawks from the cup runs, kruger would undoubtedly be on that list. He was the ideal 4th line center in every way. Reliable faceoff guy, strong two way player, safe on offense, trusty penalty killer, and surprisingly clutch. Even though he was relatively young during the cups, he always gave off a veteran vibe. A leader by example, mature, and in control guy. At his best, he was irreplaceable to the hawks.
Do whatever happened to Michael Frolik!
Kruger was great as a Blackhawk
Djurgården not in SHL anymore
He was awesome. One of the best penalty killers ever. Big reason the hawks had such a strong penalty kill and he could chip in some goals here and there
Remember “But first, there was a lockout”
He came close to Triple Gold in the Olympics.
Kruger was a defensive specialist. Elite penalty killer and face-off guru.
Good, respectable career as a “safety valve,” and cheers to the homecoming.
Dennis Seidenberg next plz!!
I love Murcas Kurger I do really miss him he was so great on the pk.
Krugs was pretty dope during those runs in chicago. I kinda wish they had given him just 1 more year after the 2018-2019 season then maybe wait till after 2019-2020 once covid hit to let him walk if they had to so with flat caps and shit since the PK in the 2019-2020 season was pretty and compared to the 2018-2019 year and so he could've had a chance to reunite with Shaw who he played with from 2011 to 2016 who had just been traded back to the hawks that same summer since that 2015 run saw them develop lotta dope chemistry on the ice. Ofc Shaw only played the first 26 games of 19-20 but still would've been kinda cool to see those 2 reunite.
Love to see this guy getting some love
Former Blackhawk fan here chiming in.
Kruger was fine as a player. I think it can be easy for people to overstate his value (I've seen a few in the comments attribute 'great' to him, haha) but at the same time, I think those same people might be trying to compensate for how easy it might be to understate someone like Kruger. It's a weird line to walk, I guess.
2010-2015 Hawks were just as bountiful in star talent as they were in their abilities to cover up sexual assaults committed by their coaching staff. But a third ingredient they had was solid depth. Particularly, those depth players were younger. If there's one thing NHL GMs are guilty of, it's overvaluing aging veterans. Following the theme of my first paragraph, I don't want to come out here and say that veteran leadership and all the stuff that comes with that is 100% fiction. It has its place, certainly. But NHL GMs love that stuff just a bit too much to where they'll sacrifice better pieces out of their line-up. They hinder themselves so much because of a weird refusal to trust a younger player who is going to be quicker than the older player. And ice hockey is all about quickness. So the Hawks were loaded with youth, including thier depth players. They didn't have much in the way of 'veteran leadership.'
In 2013, the only players the Hawks had 30 and over?
Marian Hossa - Who was still playing top level
Patrick Sharp - Not QUITE top level, but still pretty damn good
Jamal Mayers - Sparingly used (never in the playoffs)
Sheldon Brookbrank - Pretty much same as Mayers (1 game in playoffs, haha)
Handzus - This might be the closest you get to a veteran on the team for the sake of being a veteran, but he was a trade rental, and was playing effectively on a third line still.
Oduya & Roszival - And this pair would be second closest. But in both their cases, I don't think they were ever renowned on the team because of their veteran abilities, lol.... Everyone knew that if there was a weakness to be found on the Hawks, it was probably their bottom 3 defense. (Others would argue Crawford as well, but I personally always found that to be BS.)
Pretty much all their regular forwards were 26 & under though. That's naturally going to be faster than a team that insist on stick those 35 year old 'gritty' players. Along with youth comes a better sense of endurance as well. Easy for a 24 year old to take a bump than it is for a 34 year old.
All this to say, Kruger was a realistically ideal candidate to be your team's 4th line center. Young, inexpensive, and was willing to play the part. He knew his job wasn't to score points as much as it was to just be responsible while the studs of the team rested up. If Kruger ever scored, that was just a bonus. That was one thing that kind of bugged me in this video, that it kept focusing on 'rebounding' or 'declining' based on point totals. The focus of that is all wrong. It wasn't ever his job to score. He was always there to maintain. If you want to really evaluate Kruger, it should be more focused on looking at how effective he was at keeping the puck out of his net.
Unfortunately for Kruger, I think a combination of three things happened to him:
1. He got older, which... No cure for that, ha
2. He got one of those 'veteran' contracts. Paying a 4th line center 3 mil per year is a bad move (particularly by 2016 standards). And Kruger, for as valuable as he was in that role, wasn't ever feasibly going to be more than that.
3. This part I'm a little rusty/hazy on, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate: Hawks were in a bad cap crunch after 2015. I believe there was a handshake deal in place with Kruger to where they would sign him for 1 year at a low price (1.5 mil, which honestly still probably was too much for a 4th line C), and then the following year, would give him a bigger deal (9m over 3 years). If you average that all out into one contract it would be 10.5 over 4 (2.6AAV) which might look a little nicer, but still a classic 'veteran overpayment'.
So Kruger was great for the role he fulfilled. But I also think there are plenty of other young players who could fill a similar spot, but teams would rather focus on finding some grizzly old dude to fill the spot. But for a while, the Hawks were on to something. Prior to Kruger taking the role, the Hawks used Colin Fraser on their way to victory in 2010, who was also incredibly young.
2010's 4th line: Kopecky - Fraser - Eager (average age: 25)
2013's 4th line: Frolik - Kruger - and halfsies of Bickell & Bollig (average age, if we take the older Bickell: 24)
Youth is great. Should trump 'aged wisdom' more often than it does in hockey. I loved Kruger's time with the Blackhawks, was always happy to see him do well.
Quick sidenote related to this vet vs youth argument I am posing:
Brandon Saad had a hard time being accepted on the 2013 roster. Saad was 20yo compared to Caricllo's 27. Despite being incredibly stupid then, Carcillo was still gifted the, "wiser player because he's older and he brings grit & toughness something that little baby Saad wouldn't understand." I don't remember the exact specifics whether it was suspension, injury, or even both, but Carcillo had to miss the beginning of the season. That open up room for Saad who went on to light it up. Youth prevails yet again.
Why are you a former fan? I'm still a fan
@@masterhavoc3022 their complete bubgling of Kane's sexual assault allegations in summer of 2015 when Jocn McDonough claimed they were taking it seriously, but then 5 minutes later in the same press conference wanted to talk about how Chicago was in some sort od golden age of hockey. Say whatever you want about what may have actually happenee with Kane, that press conference was awful., and it took place before any 'good' news came out for Kane.
Then the realization that I should have known they dont care what happens to women as represented by them keeping Bobby Hull in a spotlight (who was also a Hitler sympathizer.)
Then in 2016 I think when they tried to cover up for a prospect who was being criminally investigated for revenge porn. They tried to keep that hidden, but only when a news story on the details broke that this has been ongoing for a month did Chicago choose to suspend the player. The charges were dropped eventually but only because the data transfer took place in Michigan where it was legal instead of Illinois where it would be illegal. It still happened, it was still dispicable. Chicago immediately reinstated him (Garret Ross I believe was his name) within 24 hours of case dissolving despite waiting over a month to suspend him to begin with. And as noted he was pretty much PROVEN to have done it. It was only his location of doing the deed that saved him. Additionally, nothing ever happened to the player whose girlfriend it actually was either.
By that point, I already abandoned the team. But one final kicker, after outlining their attempts to cover up things in the past, I was not at all surprised to hear what happened with Beach and that whole coverup. And for further salt in the wounds was Wirtz's outburst when he got upset at a townhall when asked what the team was going to do to prevent something like that in the future. He made it clear he never cares about Beach, only saw him as a nuisance.
That is a franchise that desperately needs to be eliminated.
No judgment on you if you still cheer for them. Seriously, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise and got plenty of friends who like the team as well. Its just how sports work I guess. But me personally? Nope, cant do that anymore.
@@IRanOutOfPhrases Fair enough mate. I'm not on socials and in Australia we don't the same coverage as you do in NA so I miss out on heaps. I was disappointed at the Beach thing too........the only other thing I was aware of was Kane hitting the cab driver over 20c which was really disappointing. Looks like I've got some reading to do.
What ever happened to Johnny Oduya
Oduya wanna oduya video, huh?
whatever happend to alexandre burrows?
whatever happend to Michael Cammalleri?
Love it when you say " but first, there was a lock ouuuuuuuut"
whatever happend to Ilya Bryzgalov?
whatever happend to Nik antropov?
Nice vid
whatever happend to Maxim Afinogenov?
whatever happend to Matt Beleskey?
Might be a bit more research heavy, but you could do a "Whatever happened to" about David Ayres, Scott Foster, and other NHL EBUGs
Very tired: GRRRRRREEEEEETINGS one and all.
Wired: Hello, hockey fans!
whatever happend to Colby Armstrong?
Whatever happened to Jason Chimera
After Djurgårdens season... let's just say you might have to edit the last 40 sec of this vid.
whatever happend to Jussi Jokinen?
💛❤️💙
Come back to the Chicago Blackhawks
Whatever happened to Tim Erixon?
Happy ending ? Who doesn't
Roman Cechmanek
andrej meszaros
Liiga on kyllä paljon viihdyttävämpää kuin NHL !
This illustrates NHL teams loving to lavish contracts on Eurotrash while letting hard working better Canadian players work in the minors ...shame on the NHL I never watch it anymore
You're delusional. Sad.
😂😂😂
"HockeyAllsvenskan side"