There is plenty to love about Torey Krug. He is one of the best power-play quarterbacks in the NHL, has a competitive streak that takes a backseat to no one on this Bruins team, and possesses a penchant for showing up when it matters — like Game 7 against Toronto last year.

In a perfect world, he’d be a Bruin for life.

But this is the real world, one in which B’s GM Don Sweeney should seriously be considering trading the spark plug. And, like everyone else, we’ve got a few ideas of whom he should be chasing.

The B’s have needs, and they’re not on defense. They need a top-six wing and third line center. We’ve contended here that the wing should be the priority. Seeing David Krejci reclaim his game with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak while playing for the injured Patrice Bergeron only reinforces the idea that the B’s would best be served finding him another playmate to go along with Jake DeBrusk. If they land that commodity, the feeling here is that coach Bruce Cassidy could make a third line center committee of Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Colby Cave and Trent Frederic work somehow.

If this ridiculous run of injuries on the blue line has had a silver lining, it has confirmed that the B’s have an enviable surplus on defense, but it’s a luxury they can’t afford forever in a salary cap world.

On the left side, Zdeno Chara is still a premier defender and John Moore is not going anywhere. Matt Grzelcyk was slated to be the team’s seventh defenseman when training camp started, but he has shown that he can be a top-four defenseman in this league. Maybe he’s been asked to do a little too much in the team’s current state, but to banish him back to the press-box once everyone’s healthy is hard to even imagine right now. Jeremy Lauzon, meanwhile, has shown he’s capable right now of handling spot duty if someone gets hurt, at the very least. He should become more than that in the near future. And let’s not forget Urho Vaakanainen, currently out with a concussion. He may be the B’s best prospect of all, regardless of position.

So why would Krug be the odd-man out? Business, of course.

Krug has one more year left at $5.25 million and then he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020, when the open market could very well dictate a raise for a player with his numbers. Meanwhile, Grzelcyk has one more year at $1.4 million, after which he’s still under Bruins’ control, while Lauzon is in the second year of his three-year entry level deal paying him a base salary of $747,500, and Vaakanainen is in his first year ($925,000). With Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo — to name just a couple young players — up for their second contracts this summer, Sweeney has to be mindful of the money.

This is not to suggest Grzelcyk is the same player as Krug just because they’re both 5-foot-9, an oft-stated fallacy. Krug is a dynamic, game-changing offensive D-man. Grzelcyk’s quickness and stickhandling ability have allowed him to become an excellent defender. They are much different players. To deal Krug would require a leap of faith that McAvoy or Grzelcyk is ready to become a top PP unit player. But even if there’s a dropoff on the power play, it would be worth it if the top-six wing can make them a better even-strength team. Then they wouldn’t be so reliant on the man-advantage to begin with.

So whom to target? Let’s try one of the NHL’s biggest underachievers this year, the St. Louis Blues — and mind you, this is speculation. There is an almost perfect term-and-money match for center/left wing Brayden Schenn (he makes $125,000 less than Krug). The 27-year-old Schenn is off to a so-so start (7-11-18 in 25 games), but he’s had three 50-plus point seasons, including last year when he notched 70.

Or how about the Flyers? One player who would look nice in a Bruins uniform would be Travis Konecny. The 21-year-old right wing had a strong sophomore season last year (24-23-47) and is producing again this year. Given his age, promise and pedigree (he was taken 24th overall in 2015), and the fact that the Flyers already have a good PP man in Shayne Gostisbehere, it would be more complicated, perhaps requiring a third team getting involved. The B’s also possess a potential deal-sweetener in Peter Cehlarik, who has shown top-six talent in spurts but seems to have hit a ceiling here. Perhaps even Anders Bjork could be had for the right package coming back.

Both Schenn and Konecny bring the skill-snarl combo the B’s could use, and either of them with Krejci and DeBrusk would make a formidable second line.

There is, of course, a good argument to keep Krug. The B’s are operating in a window with Chara, Bergeron and Krejci. No one knows when it will close, but time is of the essence. They could try and hang on in a playoff spot until the trade deadline and go for a rental (Mark Stone, Wayne Simmonds), which in theory would be cheaper than a Torey Krug.

But even if the B’s are granted 100% health for the second half of the season, there is no guarantee that they make the playoffs as they are. And if the B’s miss the postseason without playing the Krug card, it could be a long-lasting regret.