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Livonia’s Krug may miss season; MSU’s Carter earns Hall of Fame spot

VaselineJuly 17, 2024

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Livonia’s Krug may miss season; MSU’s Carter earns Hall of Fame spot

Newsroom and press agencies
| The Detroit News

St. Louis — St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug (Livonia) is at risk of missing the entire 2024-25 NHL season after being diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in his left ankle.

The team announced Tuesday that Krug will spend the next six to eight weeks working on rehabbing the injury without surgery before being reevaluated. If surgery is required, the 33-year-old would be out for the rest of the season.

Krug, who played for Honeybaked, Belle Tire and Compuware as a youth before spending three years at Michigan State, is sidelined indefinitely.

The team says the diagnosis is a cumulative result of a broken bone earlier in his career. Krug injured his left ankle in a preseason game in 2018 while playing for Boston.

Krug, who was with the Bruins when they lost the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals in seven games to the Blues, signed a seven-year, $45.5 million contract with St. Louis in 2020. He has since recorded 151 points in 262 regular-season and playoff games.

Carter is part of MSU’s class of 2024

Former NHL player Anson Carter was one of six individuals and a trailblazing team to be part of the Class of 2024 for the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Jessica (Beech) Bograkos (softball), Darqueze Dennard (soccer), Laura (Kueny) Smith (women’s golf), Beth (Rohl) Saylors (women’s track and field) and Paul Terek (men’s track and field) are joined by the 1965-66 soccer teams, the first teams to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Carter came to MSU as a 10th round pick (No. 220 overall) by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1992 NHL draft.

He remains among MSU’s all-time leading scorers, ranking sixth in goals (106), fourth in power-play goals (40) and third in shorthanded totals (11). His 178 career points ranks him 22nd all-time.

Carter now serves as one of the studio analysts for the NHL on TNT and is a founding member of the NHL’s Player Inclusion Coalition, which takes action to accelerate the growing movement for inclusion within the hockey community and educate and engage at all levels of the sport.

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Celebration will take place on Friday, September 13. There will also be special recognition for the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024 during the Michigan State-Prairie View A&M football game at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, September 14.

Parekh among the guests of Saginaw

Saginaw’s Zayne Parekh, Michael Misa and Dima Zhilkin have each received an invitation to their age group’s Program of Excellence summer camp with Hockey Canada.

▶ Parekh, 18, will attend the National Junior Team Summer Showcase in Plymouth from July 28 to August 3.

▶ Misa, 17, received an invitation to the U18 camp ahead of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

▶ Zhilkin, 15, goes to camp in preparation for the U17 World Hockey Challenge.

Byfield signs 5-year, $31.25 million contract extension

Forward Quinton Byfield has signed a five-year, $31.25 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Kings.

The Kings announced the deal for Byfield, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft, on Monday. The contract runs through the 2028-29 season.

The 21-year-old Byfield made big strides with the Kings last season, posting a career-high 20 goals and 35 assists in 80 games. He was the first Los Angeles player to have a 20-goal season at his age since captain Anze Kopitar in 2007-08.

After a slow start to his NHL career as a teenager, the 6-foot-5 power forward has grown into a prominent role for the Kings, particularly on special teams. Byfield had a career-best 14 points on the power play last season and scored four game-winning goals while finishing with a plus-19 rating.

Los Angeles reached the playoffs for the third straight year, but was eliminated in the first round by Edmonton for the third straight season.

Byfield, who was a restricted free agent, will become the Kings’ fifth forward next season and the eighth player with an average annual salary of more than $5 million.

Islanders retain free agent Holmstrom

The New York Islanders have signed forward Simon Holmstrom to a one-year contract.

The Islanders announced the signing of the 23-year-old Swedish player on Tuesday.

Holmstrom had 15 goals and 10 assists in 75 games with the Islanders last season. His five short-handed goals and seven short-handed points led the team and ranked second in the National Hockey League.

The Islanders selected him with the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft. He has 21 goals and 13 assists in 125 NHL games and 27 goals and 43 assists in 154 games with the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate in Connecticut.

Holmstrom averaged over a point per game in over two seasons in the SuperElit League. He won a gold medal with Team Sweden at the 2018 U-18 World Junior Championships, scoring a goal in the final against Russia.

VaselineJuly 17, 2024

0 3 minutes read