Alex Pietrangelo won’t be in the lineup for the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 8, but their No. 1 defenseman did not rule out returning from a hip injury at some point this season.
The defenseman is on injured reserve rehabilitating a hip issue he played through most of last season and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Nothing is really concrete,” Pietrangelo said Monday. “I’m just going to continue to take it day-by-day and go throughout my process and see where it goes.”
Pietrangelo has two seasons remaining on a seven-year, $61.6 million contract ($8.8 million average annual value) he signed as an unrestricted free agent on Oct. 12, 2020. He is expected to begin this season on long-term injured reserve.
Pietrangelo announced he was stepping away from the Golden Knights for health reasons on June 30, and it was suspected he would not be able to play again.
The retirement talk may have been premature.
“I’m continuing to rehab, I’m going to continue to do that,” Pietrangelo said. “The process has been good so far. First and foremost, I think being able to be a dad and being able to do the things I want to do as a dad is very important to me.
“We have a phenomenal team here and the rehab process has been great. I’ve been able to be the husband and the dad that I want to be and last year, it was very difficult to be able to do those kind of things. That’s been very refreshing.”
The 35-year-old has played the past five seasons with the Golden Knights and won the Stanley Cup with Vegas in 2023. Prior to that, Pietrangelo played 10 full seasons with the St. Louis Blues and won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Vegas (50-22-10) finished first in the Pacific Division last season and was eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in five games.
Following the season, Pietrangelo said he made the decision to step away in order to return to a normal quality of life.
“I wouldn’t say anything changed, I guess going through what I went through last year to be able to play at the level I thought I could get to was obviously very difficult,” Pietrangelo said. “Then you get to the end of the season and all that stuff, it was all kind of fresh to me.
“My focus is what we didn’t accomplish as a team, it’s not really about the players. You talk to most guys here, they’re not going to dwell on injuries that everybody had. So you kind of go through that process and you consult with the medical staff and doctors and you kind of see what your options are and that’s how I came to the decision.”
Pietrangelo has not had surgery to this point and instead is focusing on his rehab process. It allows him to continue to be around his teammates at training camp.
“Mentally it’s great, because I love being part of a locker room and anybody that’s played sports, especially at our age, you get together with the guys and it’s been really fun for me to come here and get to see everybody and still be a part of the group,” Pietrangelo said. “I’m just trying to help guys too right now in training camp, be a sounding board. We have a lot of young guys, whether they’re in junior or Henderson (American Hockey League) or up here that hopefully, I can be a good sounding board for them.”
Pietrangelo has 637 points (148 goals, 489 assists) in 1,087 games and 80 points (15 goals, 65 assists) in 149 playoff games. He is not sure when he first sustained the injury.
“It probably started a long time ago, but last year was when it really took a toll on me, maybe due to age, I don’t know, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why,” he said. “But it really started to get to me last year and to try to address it with how good of a team we had, it would have cut the whole year off for me.”
Pietrangelo was to play for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season but withdrew from the tournament to rest his body and prepare for the second half of the season. He will not play for Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in February. The King City, Ontario native won gold with Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“That was one of the coolest experiences that I’ve ever had, that comes into the decision too,” Pietrangelo said. “The hard part for me about that is that I wish my kids would have had an opportunity to see me do it. My wife and my kids, to be able to see that would have been pretty special.”
Even without Pietrangelo, the Golden Knights are again expected to be one of the top teams in the Pacific Division this season.
“That’s a big hole and like other subtractions you have to fill it collectively as a group,” Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore said at the Hockey Canada Olympic Orientation Camp on Aug. 28. “We’re going to have to step up for sure and fill those shoes collectively. You can’t just bring in one guy to replace [Pietrangelo], we have to do it as a group.”