Vegas D-Man Alex Pietrangelo Drops Significant Update on His Future

Alex Pietrangelo, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman

Long-time Vegas Golden Knights star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo announced back in June that he was stepping away from hockey for a while to try to nurse his injured hip back to health. Many began wondering if the 35-year-old's career was over.

But the workhorse d-man has revealed on Monday that we shouldn't count him all the way out just yet.

Per insider Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, observers should only count Pietrangelo out this season at their own risk.

Pietrangelo said Monday that he has opted not to have surgery while continuing a rehab program that has given him positive results. When asked if a return this season was off the table, Pietrangelo wouldn't rule it out.

"Nothing is really concrete. I'm just going to continue to take it day-by-day and see where it goes," he told Wyshynski at Golden Knights training camp.

Pietrangelo now says he won't rule out a return to play this season

This is a far cry from the statements he made back in June, when the 17-year veteran said of his chronically bad hip, "The likelihood is low that my body will recover to the standard required to play."

Vegas will begin the 2025-26 season with Pietrangelo's $8.8 million cap hit on LTIR, affording them the ability to excise their current overage violation of $7.6 million. Of course, adding Mitch Marner's new $12M AAV this season has left them hard against the cap, and if Pietrangelo actually does return, they'll need to so some serious financial juggling.

The Golden Knights won't be able to pull off their old Mark Stone LTIR until the playoffs trick with Pietrangelo either, as the new rules call for a salary cap in the postseason as well beginning next spring.

The 6'3" right-shot blueliner has been Vegas's rock on the backline for five seasons, helping lead them to the Stanley Cup in 2023, and before that, spent 12 years in St. Louis, with an incredible 2019 playoff that won him and the Blues their first Cup. Pietrangelo led the NHL with 16 assists in 26 games in that postseason run.