It's a great time to be a Michigan State Spartan. And no, I'm not talking about Plaxico Burress or Charles Rogers.

The basketball team is ranked No.1 in the nation, the football team has just sewn up its second Legends Division title in three years and one of its hockey-playing alumni is the frontrunner for Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year at the quarter mark of the season.

Torey Krug made a name for himself in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, coming out of nowhere and scoring four goals and adding two assists working on the Boston Bruins blue line.

Since he had played only three regular season NHL games in his career before heading into 2013-14, this is considered his rookie season. His success has seemingly carried over from the playoffs, as he is tied with Ottawa Senator Erik Karlsson, Nashville Predator Shea Weber and Phoenix Coyote Michael Stone for the NHL lead in goals among defensemen with seven.

Being mentioned alongside names like Karlsson and Weber, arguably the two best offensive defensemen in the game today, is one heck of a testament to what Krug has been able to accomplish thus far.

Boston's defense corps is one of the best and deepest in hockey; however, Krug leads all Bruins defensemen in just about every offensive category.

What sets Krug apart from some of the games elite defensemen is while he has been putting up numbers as good as just about anyone, he does not get nearly as much ice time as most since he is a rookie on a very deep group of d-men. As long as he proves that this start isn't a fluke, Krug could end up becoming one of the top scoring defensemen in the NHL year after year as he gains some more seniority.

Perhaps the biggest moment of Krug's extremely young career thus far came in Monday night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. After the Penguins tied the game with 0.3 seconds remaining in regulation, Krug put one past Marc-Andre Fleury just 44 seconds into overtime to lock up two points for his Bruins in a battle for first place in the Eastern Conference.

Monitoring Torey Krug's development throughout the rest of this season as well as next will be very interesting. He has shown that he has what it takes to put his game on an elite level, and he is one of the main reasons that his Bruins team holds the best record in the East.

Can he help lead Boston to another Stanley Cup in the coming years? Time will tell.