A reporter raised his hand.

“Torey, there’s been some speculation about whether or not you’ll sign a professional contract at the end of this season. Can you comment on that?”

A pin might have dropped; Krug lifted his head.

“I can’t comment on that,” Krug answered. “My concern is with the guys in the locker room right now — and only them.”

And that wasn’t a surprise. Given leadership abilities his teammates swear by and his complete dedication to the MSU hockey program, nobody expected Krug’s mind to be on anything but the team he led.

Two days later, Krug and Anastos announced the defenseman’s decision to forego his last year of NCAA eligibility and sign with the NHL’s Boston Bruins.

Fast forward six months: the NHL now is in a lockout, keeping Krug from starting his first professional season in Boston.

Krug has joined other NHL players whose contracts allow them to play in the American Hockey League, or AHL, which partly is composed of NHL affiliate teams, and he will head to Providence, R.I., to start training next week.

Although Krug is starting a new life in a professional league, he still remembers the place that gave him so much — and the place to which he gave so much.

“I will work as hard as I can to continue to be a part of the MSU hockey program,” Krug said. “I’m looking forward to coming back, seeing the guys, sharing experiences and seeing the coaches. As long as I’m around, I’m going to pay attention to the program.”

Our Draymond Green

Krug would be the first man to give someone a shirt off his back if they needed it, and his teammates know it.

“I don’t think anybody on the team was more trusted than Torey Krug,” senior forward Anthony Hayes said. “He was always the first on the ice, last one off … He was an exceptional young man, mature beyond his years. He stepped on campus and was a leader right away. It was actually a very special thing to see develop over a few years.”

Hayes knows Krug as well as anyone — the two grew up playing against each other in Southeast Michigan and came to MSU at the same time, playing as Spartans for three seasons.

Krug rose as a leader in the MSU hockey program far earlier than most college athletes. He was named captain of the team his sophomore year by vote of fellow teammates under former MSU head coach Rick Comley.

When he saw the press release, Anastos said he thought MSU either had very little leadership or Krug was a special leader — he later found the latter to be true.

The following season, when Anastos accepted the role of MSU head coach, he compared Krug to another staple of MSU athletics, saying, “Torey Krug was our Draymond Green.”

“(Krug) will admit that was a pretty tough role to put a sophomore into and that he went through growing pains and made mistakes, but to his credit, he’s very analytical,” Anastos said. “He wanted to be a leader on the team, so he took it very seriously. He took it to heart. He learned from mistakes he felt he made, and he found a way to get better.”

That was the impression Krug left on not only his former coach, but his teammates as well. Krug wasn’t the most vocal of captains, choosing rather to lead by his dedication, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by fellow teammates.

“He would leave the rink at 6 with everybody else, but he was already preparing for the next day at the rink,” Hayes said. “He was strictly concerned with what’s best for the team, what’s best for his hockey career, what’s best for the next game or practice, what’s going to help us succeed. That’s how he made all of his decisions.”

Student of the game

Standing at 6-foot-9 with a slapshot of 108.8 mph, Bruins defender Zdeno Chára can be intimidating to even the toughest of NHL players.

To a 5-foot-9, 21-year-old player right out of college, Chára can be downright terrifying. But Krug doesn’t believe in intimidation — he said there’s no reason for it. His small stature is all he’s had to work with his whole life, but he’s found a way to use it to his advantage.

As a Spartan, he spun his size into a 2012 West first-team All-American honor, CCHA Player of the Year with 26 goals and 57 assists in 114 games spanning three seasons.

“What I like about him the most is he’s very skilled, but he’s very smart,” Anastos said. “I think one of the things that really matured in his game over the past year is, sometimes, a smaller player tries to play like a bigger player because of stubbornness, to say, ‘I’ll show you I can, show you I’m tough.’ His biggest asset is his smarts.”

Torey Krug’s father, Kyle Krug, worried about his son’s size early on his career, but Torey’s hockey IQ makes up for any lack of size.

“He was a rink rat kid,” Kyle Krug said. “He’d be there watching his brothers’ practice. Most little kids would be running around the rink shooting pucks or shooting balls or playing on vending machines, but he was actually observing what was going on at practice. He’s been a student of the game from the time he was 3.”

With a glance at the Krug household, it’s easy to understand how Torey Krug’s love for the game developed.

Kyle Krug coaches hockey — he coached Torey growing up — Torey’s oldest brother, Adam Krug, played at Wayne State and now coaches in the USHL, and his second-oldest brother, Matt Krug, also played at Wayne State and will play minor league hockey in Kansas City, Mo., this year, Torey said.

“It just shows hockey is in my blood,” Torey Krug said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from my two brothers; they got to go through everything before I did. The way I play is kind of a mixture between the way my two older brothers play. Adam was more of a finesse forward; Matt was a tough guy defenseman, so I have a mixture of the genes.”

Kyle Krug said he always had faith Torey would be a top-of-the-line player one day. In a USCHO feature on the brothers, Matt and Adam Krug predicted Torey Krug would end up at a top-notch school much bigger than Wayne State, citing his “offensive defenseman” type play.

Torey Krug recalled playing for his father growing up, saying he dealt with accusations of favoritism and extra playing time from teammates.

“With my dad, that wasn’t the case at all,” he said. “In fact, he was harder on me than he was on anybody else. There were times I got sat during the game; I didn’t get to play because he was upset with the way I was playing. That comes full circle. He held me to a higher standard, and I think that helped me in the long run.”

On thin ice

When Torey Krug began talking to NHL teams, he had one of the most knowledgeable men in the sport at his beck and call.

Anastos has appeared on The Hockey News’ list of 100 most influential and powerful people in hockey for five years running, served as commissioner of the CCHA for 13 years and also is a Spartan hockey alumnus.

Using his experience, Anastos guided Krug by giving him perspective on the differences between college and professional hockey. The MSU coach said most players learn through the “school of hard knocks,” but he wanted Krug to know exactly what to expect out of the “sex appeal” of NHL hockey.

“He embraced it,” Anastos said. “He wanted to learn as much as he could, and to his credit, I think he really prepared himself well for that transition. I tried to take the emotion out of being excited about getting attention and signing for a nice living and all those things that get you excited. I tried to carve through it and say, ‘OK, this is business. Let’s look at it this way.’”

Immediately after signing, Krug was shipped off to Boston to acclimate to a new city, new team, new life. He watched from the press box his first day, then played two games with the Bruins, notching an assist in one of them.

Although Krug might be prepared for the rigors of NHL life, he will have to wait a little bit longer before putting his lessons from Anastos to use.

On 11:59 p.m. Sept. 15, the league entered a lockout, meaning players can’t practice, attend training camps or play games until further notice.

This lockout is the NHL’s fourth since 1992, and the possibility of a full-season lockout lingers ahead. Currently, players get 57 percent of hockey-related revenue, and the owners want to cut that down to 46 percent, along with trying to tweak contracts and eliminate signing bonuses. Wednesday, the NHL canceled all preseason games through Sept. 30.

Many NHL teams are sending players down to AHL affiliates, while others head over to European leagues for the time being. Earlier in the week, Krug was assigned to the Providence Bruins with 22 other Boston players to be kept within the Bruins system until NHL negotiations are settled.

Krug said although it’s not the best way to start his NHL career, he’s making the best of the situation presented.

“The AHL is going to be a very competitive league this year,” Krug said. “There’s going to be a lot of NHL players playing in the AHL. It won’t just be the minor leagues; it’s going to be somewhere between the minor league and the NHL.”

Krug will wait to put on his Boston Bruins jersey again, hoping to one day make it past the ranks of a phenomenal college hockey player to an equally talented professional.

“I believe he has the skill set and the mental makeup to play in the NHL and be an NHLer,” Anastos said. “I told him, ‘Don’t leave (MSU) early to be just a pro hockey player, leave here to be an NHL hockey player.’ To me, there’s a big difference. I think he has that mindset to do it; his skill set has the capability.”