Photo: Medicine Hat Tigers

Next up in our annual prospect review and forecast series is Dru Krebs, defenseman for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League (WHL). (You can access all of the Capitals prospect reports and player analysis on our “Prospects” page in the top menu or right here.)

VITALS

Krebs, 19, is a 6’-0” left-handed defenseman from Okotoks, Alberta. The Capitals selected Krebs in the fifth round (#176th pick overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. He remains unsigned by the Capitals.

CAREER SUMMARY

Krebs followed his two elder brothers, Dakota and Peyton, into hockey. While his oldest brother, Dakota, was never drafted, he was familiar with the draft due to the experience of his brother, Peyton, who the Vegas Golden Knights ultimately selected at #17 overall in 2019.

Peyton played in four games with Vegas, but spent most of the 2020-21 season with the Henderson Silver Knights. His brother, Dakota, played five seasons of junior hockey in the Western Hockey League. He signed a player tryout contract with the Toronto Marlies but did not get a regular AHL job. His elder sister, Maddison is a singer/songwriter.

Dru Kebs played for the Under 18 AAA team in the Alberta Midget Hockey League (AMHL) in his hometown of Okotoks in 2018-19, where he played in 34 games, scored one goal, and recorded 18 assists.

Krebs made his WHL debut in the 2019-20 season, playing in 55 regular season games and recorded three goals and 10 assists. During the 2020-21 season, Krebs recorded 11 assists in 23 games for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Krebs attended Capitals’ prospect camp at the end of September, 2021, and participated in the Capitals main training camp. He was returned to the Medicine Hat Tigers on September 28. The Tigers struggled the entire season, as Krebs ended his 2021-22 campaign a whopping -58 in plus/minus. It was extremely difficult to gauge Krebs and fellow Capitals’ prospect Garin Bjorklund, as to how they were performing in the 11 games we watched this past season.

Krebs joined teammate Garin Bjorklund in reporting to Hershey following the conclusion of the Medicine Hat season on Friday April 15. Both Bjorklund and Krebs signed amateur tryout agreements with the Bears and we’re officially released from the agreement a week later.

2021-2022 MONTH-BY-MONTH RECAP AND TREND ANALYSIS

The following is a compilation of our month-by-month prospect reports for Dru Krebs during the 2021-2022 season. You can find all of our monthly prospect reports on our “Prospects” page in the top menu.

OCTOBER
Krebs attended Capitals’ prospect camp at the end of September and participated in the Capitals main training camp. He was returned to the Medicine Hat Tigers on September 28. Krebs scored his first goal of the season on October 23 against the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Dru Krebs with his first goal of the season. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/b0XQAq6JGB

— Jon Sorensen (@jon_m_sorensen) October 24, 2021

For the season Krebs has a goal and no assists in 11 games played and is a -5. Again, Medicine Hat has been struggling this season.

TRENDING: SAME

NOVEMBER
Dan Baker, the Tigers lone over-ager on the blue line, and Krebs have been the Tigers’ top pairing all season. Baker was asked about playing with Krebs. “I love playing with Dru, he’s an awesome skater and he gets back to pucks so quick it makes my job pretty easy,” Baker said. “It’s been an easy transition to play with him and we’re getting better as we keep going here so we’re going to keep building.”

For the month of November, Krebs had no goals and one assist in nine games played. For the season he has a goal and an assist in 20 games played and is a -16 on the ice. He’s shot the puck 24 time for a 4.2% shooting percentage.

Again, Medicine Hat has been terrible this season, and finished the month on an 12-game losing streak, so some of that might factor into Krebs’ performance. However, we watched several of his games and his game has been spotty at best at this point. Plenty of unforced errors, but that is to be expected. His puck handing and board battling has to improve, and it will.

TRENDING: SAME

DECEMBER
It was another quiet month for Krebs, offensively, with no goals and just four assists in 10 games played. He did record a majority of his assists towards the end of the month.

Defensively, he seems to be playing a consistent game in the three games we watched in December, although the overall struggles by the Medicine Hat team play into the analysis. He was a minus-8 in December and is a minus-22 for the season in 29 games played.

He is starting consistent games and getting good experience, but at this point he wouldn’t be ready to report to Hershey in the fall. That could change with a solid spring.

TRENDING: SAME

JANUARY
The Tigers were cleared to resume team activities January 10 after being put on pause by the WHL alongside 13 other teams on December 7 due to the pandemic.

Krebs picked up the assist on the Tiger’s game-winner in their first game back on December 12 against Brandon. He recorded a goal on January 15

Dru Krebs: “Hey, if I tie the game you should score 40 seconds later to take the lead.”

Corson Hopwo: “Aight bet.”@tigershockey | @Capitals pic.twitter.com/NlWv7CMX7i

— The WHL (@TheWHL) January 16, 2022

Krebs had a goal and two assists in nine games played in January. He has recorded two goals and seven assists in 37 games played. He’s shot the puck 56 times for a 3.5% shooting percentage.

TRENDING: SAME

FEBRUARY
Krebs and the Tigers visited the first place Edmonton Oil Kings in Edmonton on February 13, where Krebs notched two impressive tallies in the contest. He kicked off the scoring just over 10 minutes into the contest with a play that began in his own zone.

Krebs maneuvered the puck between his legs to shake an opposing player. He then made a cross-ice feed to a teammate on the wing and began his rush to the goal where he was fed a pass that he deflected for the tally.

Dru Krebs’ first of two goals against the Oil Kings Saturday night is a beauty. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/g7rev3URVO

— Jon Sorensen (@jon_m_sorensen) February 13, 2022

Krebs second tally of the night began with a gathered puck along the wall. He drove to the net and went short side beating the Oil Kings netminder with a backhand shot.

Dru Krebs second goal against the Oil Kings Saturday night. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/Plg9BfSC1m

— Jon Sorensen (@jon_m_sorensen) February 13, 2022

Krebs effort wasn’t enough as the Tigers fell to the Oil Kings 5-3, dropping their record to 9-29-3-1 on the season. Tiger’s associate coach Joe Frazer said it was good to see Krebs get rewarded with points on the score sheet.

“He’s been snake bit a bit this year but he’s one of our hardest workers on and off the ice every day,” Frazer said. “So it’s good to see him get rewarded.”

Krebs, who was named the second star of the game, said he can’t complain about getting on the score sheet as he said scoring goals is one of the best feelings in the world. Krebs said he’s he’s felt more confident over the Tigers last couple games.

“Today I was able to execute but it’s always fun, scoring puts a little extra jump in your step for sure,” Krebs said.

It was his first multi-goal game of his WHL career. He said the defeat gives them a little more confidence going against a team like Edmonton.

“Having a closer game, it makes you feel like if we play like that against more teams than we’ll win more games,” Krebs said. “I think that’s what you pull away from this game.”

Offensively, Krebs has four goals and 10 assists in 47 games played so far this season. He is a -34, but again, that’s on a sub-par Medicine Hat team. He’s looked solid in the two games we watched in February.

TRENDING: SAME

MARCH
Offensively, Krebs had another quiet month for Medicine Hat, with no goals and four assists in 13 games played. For the season, he has four goals and 14 assists in 59 games played. He’s shot the puck 81 times for a 4.9% shooting percentage, which isn’t going to cut it.

Defensively, Krebs is a whopping -45, but again, the Medicine Hat team has been downright awful this season. Krebs showed responsible play and sound zone exits in the games we watched in March, but the level of play of the team continues to cloud the issue and hamper his development/analysis. Let’s hope Krebs gets a change of scenery for next season.

TRENDING: SAME

APRIL
Krebs joined teammate Garin Bjorklund in reporting to Hershey following the conclusion of the Medicine Hat season on Friday April 15. Both Bjorklund and Krebs signed amateur tryout agreements with the Bears and we’re officially released from the agreement a week later.

For the season, Krebs finished with four goals and 15 assists in 66 games played for a porous and poor Tigers team. Defensively, Krebs was a whopping -58 for the season, again, on a poor Medicine Hat team.

It’s been a challenge this season trying to gauge both Bjorklund and Krebs, as the team was bad. It’s likely the reason both were summoned to Hershey at the end of the season, so Capitals management could get a better feel for their development over the last nine months.

TRENDING: SAME

PLAYER FORECAST

Krebs will likely return to Medicine Hat for his fourth and final season in the CHL. He will need to use the season to develop and prepare for a potential move to Hershey for the 2023-24 season. Ideally, the Capitals would move Krebs to another team for his final year of eligibility in the CHL/WHL.

By Jon Sorensen