Alex Pietrangelo Will Not Play In 2025-26

Oct. 7: The Golden Knights declared Pietrangelo out for the season when submitting their opening night roster, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. As such, they’ll be eligible for his full potential $8.8MM of LTIR relief, but he’s ineligible to return at any point – including the playoffs – under the league’s new LTIR rules. The out-for-season declaration, new for this season, requires approval from the league, player, and NHLPA.

Sep. 24: TSN’s Darren Dreger spoke on Pietrangelo’s comments on the network’s Insider Trading segment Tuesday and stated that the blueliner’s comments were met with “too much optimism.” Dreger said that those close to Pietrangelo noted how much effort it took for Pietrangelo to simply be able to play in games last season, a sentiment that echoes reporting surrounding fellow defenseman Shea Weber’s retirement from several years ago, which was also brought on by severe injury trouble.

Dreger said that Pietrangelo’s current recovery process is entirely focused on returning him to as much health as possible, “lifestyle-wise,” and that the defenseman “is not playing this year.” So, despite how things may have appeared based on Pietrangelo’s comments and the many reports that emerged yesterday, it does not seem at this stage that a return to the ice in 2025-26 is at all realistic.

Sep. 23: In June, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was dealing with significant injury issues, to the point that Pietrangelo himself stated that the “likelihood is low that my body will recover to the standard required to play” hockey again. But today, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported that Pietrangelo elected not to undergo surgery to repair his lingering hip issue and is instead continuing a rehab program that has thus far “given him positive results.”

Wyshynski added that, despite his earlier statement, Pietrangelo would not rule out the possibility of potentially returning to play. Pietrangelo said, “Nothing is really concrete. I’m just going to continue to take it day-by-day and see where it goes,” which, while far from a confirmation that he’s looking to return to the ice, sounds considerably different from earlier this summer, when he appeared to rule out a return to play.

This past summer, it appeared Pietrangelo’s situation would be similar to that of recently-traded netminder Carey Price, whose knee issues forced a premature end to his playing career. Pietrangelo would not be the first NHL star to prioritize his long-term health over pushing for a return to the game, but today’s news indicates that he might be headed in a different direction than Price.

Should Pietrangelo ultimately recover enough to return to NHL action, it would be a significant boost to the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup hopes. Although there’s no telling at this stage to what extent the injury has sapped Pietrangelo’s playing abilities, his return would nonetheless add a blueliner with an elite résumé back into the Vegas lineup. The 35-year-old has been a number-one defenseman on two Stanley Cup-winning teams, and he has finished a season in the top five in Norris Trophy voting three times.

Pietrangelo has nearly 1,100 games of regular-season experience and has skated in 149 postseason contests. Even if his abilities are diminished compared to where they were when he was fully healthy, he’d still most likely be a highly valuable NHL contributor.

Financially, the picture becomes a little cloudier should Pietrangelo return. His $8.8MM cap hit would not, at this moment, fit into the team’s financial structure in a way that would allow them to remain cap-compliant. And with the NHL now enforcing the salary cap in the postseason, the pathway for making a potential Pietrangelo return work on the team’s balance sheet is now all the more complex.

Today’s news isn’t Pietrangelo announcing a return to play; of course, it’s just him changing his tune slightly to leave the door open for a potential return. Accordingly, since his hypothetical return is far from imminent, at the very least, Vegas’ hockey operations department will have ample time to figure out how to make it all fit.

But stepping away from the finer details of a potential Pietrangelo return, today’s news is undoubtedly a positive one for not just the Golden Knights, but hockey in general. Pietrangelo has been one of the most consistent, widely respected figures of the game’s current era. To see him hang up his skates prematurely due to injury would be an unfortunate way to end the career of one of this generation’s finest defensemen.

Photos courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez – Imagn Images