Around the league, plenty of folks may see this as hockey karma catching up to Vegas — a little payback for all those times the Golden Knights were accused of gaming the LTIR loophole.
On Monday, Alex Pietrangelo faced the cameras for the first time since his June 30 statement shook the hockey world. The veteran defenseman, a two-time Cup winner and cornerstone of Vegas’ blue line, had revealed that he was stepping away because of severe hip issues that stubbornly resisted treatment. He never used the word “retirement,” but when the possibility of a bilateral femur reconstruction surgery surfaced, doubts spread fast about whether the 35-year-old could survive the grind of NHL hockey again.
Alex Pietrangelo Suggests Possible Return in 2025-26: ‘Nothing’s Really Concrete’
This week, though, Pietrangelo’s tone had a flicker of hope. The surgery talk is shelved for now, and instead he pointed to real progress from rehab — enough to leave the door cracked on a comeback.
“With the rehab program we’ve put in place, it’s made my daily life a lot better, whereas last year was obviously not ideal and very difficult,” Pietrangelo said.
“I’m going to continue to try and rehab it. You know, you consult with doctors, and you have to look at the outcome and see if there’s going to be a guaranteed outcome, and when I met with a lot of different people and spoke to different players who have kind of been through something similar and, you know, the rehab process is the way I want to do it right now. And it’s obviously been making a huge difference. So like I said, I feel a lot better.”
In fact, Pietrangelo was not even able to give up on the notion that he could return to the ice at some point during the upcoming season.
“Nothing’s really concrete,” he said. “I’m just going to continue to, you know, kind of take it day by day and go throughout my process and see where it goes.”
Alex Pietrangelo’s Optimistic Update May Cause Salary Concerns for Vegas
But according to Rob Couch with NHLTradeRumors.com, therein lies the rub for Vegas. Because as Couch indicated, with the suggestion that he may return this season, Pietrangelo may have significantly impeded what the Golden Knights were hoping to do with his salary:
“According to PuckPedia, if Pietrangelo is out for the season, Vegas can exceed the cap by his full cap hit of $8.8 million through LTIR. But if there’s a possibility that the veteran is back this season, the Golden Knights can only exceed the cap through LTIR by $3.8 million. Pietrangelo’s uncertainty and comments seem to have cost the Golden Knights $5 million to spend, or in their current case, they are $7.6 million over the cap, so they would have to make at least one trade to free up space.”
Couch cited 32-year-old center William Karlsson as the only player on the Golden Knights’ roster who “makes enough sense to trade,” given the $5.9 million he is owed for the last two seasons of his current contract, as well as the team’s options at center. Karlsson does have a 10-team no-trade clause, but with Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl able to fill the top two lines, and Brett Howden, Colton Sissons and Ivan Barbashev among those who can step into the bottom-six roles, trading Karlsson may be the necessary move.
But it would sting, especially since Pietrangelo’s return is far from certain.
Vegas Veteran’s Admission Could Force Cap-Clearing Trade