The 30-year-old goalie joins the club from Swedish side, IK Oskarshamn who he has iced for over the last two seasons and in that time, he has back-stopped for the club in both the Swedish topflight and second division.
Emil played 27 games for IK Oskarshamn in the Swedish Hockey League during the 2023-2024 campaign, posting an .889 save percentage and a 3.68 goals against average before then featuring 33 times for the club in the Allsvenskan league this past season.
In the second tier, Kruse held a save percentage of .902 and a goals against average of 2.64, as he helped his team to 17 wins and an eighth-place finish in the Allsvenskan.
The native of Karlstad, has played most of his career in his home country, except for one year as he joined Danish side, Herning Blue Fox for the 2021-2022 campaign and iced in 40 games, with a stat line of .910 and 2.37 GAA in the regular season.
The Swede has racked up over 200 games of experience in the Allsvenskan, along with 39 SHL appearances after rising through the ranks of different clubs around the country and has over 150 career wins to his name.
LEFEBVRE ON KRUSE
After adding experience to his goaltending team in Kruse, Stars Director of Hockey Operations and Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre, said: “Emil is a standout veteran goalie that brings a wealth of experience to our goaltending team.
“He and Jarrett (Fiske) will be a great partnership and Emil will also be able to mentor Dominik (Jaglar) throughout the season.
“He plays with poise and is calm under pressure which in turn gives the rest of the team a boost.
“We looked at a number of options but kept coming back to Emil due to his competitiveness and elite level of giving his teams a chance to win every night.”
KRUSE ON SWAPPING SWEDEN FOR SCOTLAND
Once the deal was completed, Emil said: “I am really looking forward to it, it will be a lot of fun moving to Scotland and living in a new country, taking in the new culture and playing hockey there.
“I have played against Marc (Lefebvre) before when he was coaching Odense and I was playing in Denmark with Herning, so he had seen me play before and he said he liked my game.
“So, we chatted when I was in the process of looking at my options for this season and he spoke about what opportunity he sees for me in this team and I think it will fit me really well.”
Emil is our 20th signing of the summer and joins Drydn Dow, Jonathan McBean, Jarrett Fiske, Jackson Desouza, Craig Moore, Craig Garrigan, Keanu Yamamoto, Dominick Jaglar, Kris Inglis, Griffin Luce, Morten Jürgens, Nick Isaacson, Matt Berry, Spencer Naas, Justin Bean, Ben Almquist, Brad Schoonbaert, Matt Boudens and Kameron Kielly on next season’s roster.
To see Emil’s career stats on Elite Prospects click HERE.
