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Alex Pietrangelo

Golden Knights Notes: Pietrangelo, Pachal, Cotter

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The Golden Knights will welcome Alex Pietrangelo back to the lineup tonight after missing the last three weeks due to an illness in the family.  Jesse Granger of The Athletic provides (Twitter link) some details on the situation, noting that his three-year-old daughter caught the flu which eventually became a brain lesion, leading to a loss in motor function.  Fortunately, her condition has improved considerably over the last couple of days, making the veteran comfortable enough to return to the lineup for Vegas.  Pietrangelo has 21 points in 23 games this season while logging over 23 minutes a night on the back end as their top defender so his return will certainly be a welcome one, especially with Zach Whitecloud being placed on LTIR earlier this week.

More from Vegas:

  • In a corresponding roster move, the team announced (Twitter link) that they re-assigned defenseman Brayden Pachal to Henderson of the AHL. The 23-year-old played in two games after being recalled on Monday when Jack Eichel was placed on injured reserve, picking up an assist while averaging a little under 16 minutes a night.  Pachal has spent the bulk of the year with the Silver Knights, collecting two goals and five assists in 25 contests.  He is in the final year of his entry-level contract.
  • Forward Paul Cotter is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury that was sustained on Thursday against Chicago, Granger notes in a separate tweet. The 22-year-old has acquitted himself well in his first season of full-time NHL duty, picking up six points in 22 games thus far while playing inside their bottom six.  Head coach Bruce Cassidy indicated that the good news for Cotter is that while he might miss a few days, the injury isn’t as bad as they initially feared.

Vegas Golden Knights Recall Jonas Rondbjerg, Place Brett Howden On LTIR

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5:00 pm: Forward Brett Howden was also moved to long-term injured reserve to make the roster space for Rondbjerg, per CapFriendly. Pietrangelo will be away from the team indefinitely as he deals with an illness in the family and has been given a non-roster designation. Howden has missed six games with a lower-body injury.

12:31 pm: The Vegas Golden Knights have completed just their second recall of the season, adding Jonas Rondbjerg to the NHL roster. Alex Pietrangelo, who hasn’t played since November 26 as he continues to deal with a personal matter, is no longer listed on the official roster.

Vegas is also without Jack Eichel for the time being, after suffering a lower-body injury a few days ago. His absence could open up some playing time for the 23-year-old Rondbjerg, who suited up 30 times for the Golden Knights last season. A third-round pick from 2017, the Danish forward has seven goals and 14 points in 22 games with the Henderson Silver Knights this season.

The Golden Knights have continued to win despite these important subtractions, including a statement victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday. The club is now at home for three in a row, including a rematch with the Bruins on Sunday. Third in the league with 39 points, Vegas has allowed just 71 goals through 27 games and are getting offensive contributions from all over. Six different players have at least 20 points on the year, with Reilly Smith and William Karlsson about to join that group.

Rondbjerg will try to jump on that moving train and contribute, though it isn’t clear how much actual playing time he’ll receive on this recall. Last year, he averaged almost exactly 10 minutes a night in his 30 appearances, scoring six points.

Jack Eichel Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury

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Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, according to a tweet from the team’s communications department Monday night.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Eichel would be a game-time decision for tonight’s matchup against the Boston Bruins. Now, it’s confirmed he won’t be suiting up. Neither will defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who remains out of the Golden Knights lineup on personal leave.

Eichel played just 13:36 against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, leaving the game with about 15 minutes remaining and not returning. Tonight’s battle between two of the league’s top teams will be without Vegas’ two best skaters to start the year.

After a down year last year as he battled back from a severe disc injury, Eichel is back in a big way. He leads the best-in-the-West Golden Knights in every counting stat with 13 goals, 16 assists, 29 points, and a +17 rating.

Michael Amadio will draw into tonight’s lineup, and the team hopes Eichel can return for its game Wednesday against the New York Rangers.

Snapshots: Voracek, Capitals Goalies, Vegas Injuries

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Just this Friday, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced injury updates on a number of players, including forward Jakub Voracek, who has been battling lingering effects of a concussion suffered early this season. With that announcement, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen clarified that Voracek did not necessarily have a timetable and that the team was going to give him time to see if his symptoms subsided before a return to the ice was considered. Today, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline published a more in-depth look at Voracek’s situation, speaking personally with Kekalainen on the expectations around the veteran winger, and things may look worse than they had seemed at first.

The executive acknowledged to Portzline that Voracek may very well be looking at an earlier retirement than expected. Kekalainen added “I’m more worried about him having a normal life.” Lingering concussion issues are always a serious concern for any player and team in whatever sport it may be, however the original news that the team was giving him time away appeared to be more of a long-term injury concern. With today’s report though, it seems a return to the ice might not even be a guarantee. Voracek, 33, is a veteran of 15 NHL seasons including this one, five as a Blue Jacket and 11 as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

  • The Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, announced this afternoon that they’ve signed goaltender Justin Kapelmaster to a PTO ahead of their game today. Normally, we’d put this news in a Minor Transactions piece, however NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti makes an interesting observation with impact on the Capitals. As Gulitti writes, the PTO could mean that one of Hershey’s goaltenders is headed to Edmonton to meet the Capitals after starting netminder Darcy Kuemper left last night’s game with an upper-body injury. Washington currently has Zachary Fucale and Hunter Shepard under contract and playing for the Bears, along with Charlie Lindgren already on the NHL roster.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights announced, via head coach Bruce Cassidy, that defenseman Alex Pietrangelo will miss tomorrow night’s game in Boston against the Bruins, while forward Jack Eichel will be a game-time decision. Pietrangelo has missed the last three games for Vegas for undisclosed personal reasons, last playing November 26th. While the reason for the absence isn’t any clearer than that, Vegas does return home after Monday’s game, which may be a preferred time for the defenseman to rejoin the team, as opposed to meeting them on the opposite coast for the one game. As to Eichel, the nature of his absence is still unclear.

Vegas Golden Knights Recall Daniil Miromanov

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The Vegas Golden Knights have been one of the quietest teams in the league when it comes to transactions this season, with hardly any changes made to their NHL roster from the start of the year. In fact, they hadn’t recalled a single player through the first two months, instead working with the group that broke camp to get them to a 17-6-1 record.

Today that changes, as Daniil Miromanov has been recalled from the Henderson Silver Knights. The 25-year-old defenseman is off to a strong start in the minor leagues with six goals and 13 points in 17 games.

Undrafted, Miromanov has had a very interesting path to the NHL. The 6’4″ Russian was actually a forward when he played in the QMJHL, racking up points with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan and Moncton Wildcats, but made the transition to defense in the years since. He played in the KHL, Czech league, ECHL, and AHL before making his debut with Vegas, playing 11 games with the club last season.

Now, with size and offensive instincts, he is an interesting player to follow. The Golden Knights appreciated him enough to give him a two-year contract this summer, the second year of which is a one-way deal. With Alex Pietrangelo dealing with a personal reason and away from the team, they’ve added one of Henderson’s best players to the roster to fill in.

West Notes: Predators, Pietrangelo, Oettinger

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The Nashville Predators home game tomorrow against the Anaheim Ducks will go on as scheduled after a water main break in the arena forced the team to postpone their Friday and Saturday night games. While team president Sean Henry said that “most fan-facing amenities will be functional,” he noted that the complete extent of repairs and restorations to Bridgestone will take months.

The league has yet to reschedule Nashville’s missed games against Colorado and Columbus, but Bridgestone will get a bit of a break on the hockey side soon. While there are occasional concerts there, Nashville’s home game against Anaheim is their last until December 9.

  • According to the team, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo didn’t suit up for tonight’s game against Columbus for personal reasons. Pietrangelo is having an electric start to his third season in Vegas with 21 points through 23 games. Hopefully, everything is well with Pietrangelo and his family.
  • Jake Oettinger was expected to start tonight for the Dallas Stars, but he’ll be relegated to a backup role as he deals with an illness, according to the team. He’s run into a bit of a cold streak his past few games, with his season totals dropping to a still very respectable .917 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average. He’ll likely start in Dallas’ next matchup against Anaheim on December 1.

Morning Notes: Skills Results, Bruins, KHL

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The NHL held their Skills Competition as part of their All-Star festivities last night.  The winners for each event are as follows:

Fastest Skater: Jordan Kyrou (Blues)
Save Streak: Jack Campbell (Maple Leafs) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Lightning)
Fountain Faceoff: Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets)
Hardest Shot: Victor Hedman (Lightning)
Breakaway Challenge: Alex Pietrangelo (Golden Knights)
21 in ’22: Joe Pavelski (Stars)
Accuracy Shooting: Sebastian Aho (Hurricanes)

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • There are teams with some interest in Bruins youngsters Jack Studnicka and Urho Vaakanainen but there are questions as to what the upside for both players are, suggests Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic (subscription link). Studnicka started the season in Boston’s top six but has spent most of the season in the minors while Vaakanainen’s limited experience makes it hard to project whether or not he could become a second-pairing rearguard.  Both players are potential trade options if the Bruins try to make a splash at the trade deadline but those questions of upside will make their value considerably varied around the league which could complicate things in a trade.
  • The KHL announced that they have canceled the remainder of their regular season. The season was paused in mid-January due to several COVID outbreaks and while teams have less than 10 games remaining, the Olympic break would make it too difficult to play the rest of the season without compressing the playoff schedule too much.  Instead, they’ll elect to start their postseason on March 1st with more of a normal schedule while the seedings will be based on win percentage.  The IIHF World Hockey Championships are slated to begin in mid-May so this isn’t a situation where the KHL could have played later in the spring; they want to be finished by then so their players can participate in this tournament.

NHL Announces Player Assignments For Skills Competition

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The NHL All-Star Skills competition will take place tomorrow night in Las Vegas, and the league has announced ahead of time which players will participate in which events. The player assignments for the seven events are as follows:

Fastest Skater

Chris Kreider, NYR
Adrian Kempe, LAK
Kyle Connor, WPG
Evgeny Kuznetsov, WSH
Jordan Kyrou, STL
Dylan Larkin, DET
Cale Makar, COL
Connor McDavid, EDM           

Save Streak

Jack Campbell, TOR
Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL
Frederik Andersen, CAR
Tristan Jarry, PIT
Cam Talbot, MIN
Juuse Saros, NSH
Thatcher Demko, VAN
John Gibson, ANA

Fountain Face-Off

Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA
Claude Giroux, PHI
Jordan Eberle, SEA
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson
Roman Josi, NSH
Nick Suzuki, MTL
Zach Werenski, CBJ
Mark Stone, VGK

Hardest Shot

Adam Pelech, NYI
Timo Meier, SJS
Victor Hedman, TBL
Tom Wilson, WSH

Breakaway Challenge

Goalies: Manon Rhéaume & Wyatt Russell

Kirill Kaprizov, MIN
Trevor Zegras, ANA
Jack Hughes, NJD
Alex DeBrincat, CHI
Alex Pietrangelo, VGK

Las Vegas NHL 21 in ’22

Nazem Kadri, COL
Auston Matthews, TOR
Joe Pavelski, DAL
Steven Stamkos, TBL
Brady Tkachuk, OTT

Accuracy Shooting

Leon Draisaitl, EDM
Clayton Keller, ARI
Rasmus Dahlin, BUF
Sebastian Aho, CAR
Jake Guentzel, PIT
Troy Terry, ANA
Johnny Gaudreau, CGY
Patrice Bergeron, BOS
Jonathan Marchessault, VGK

Two new events, the Fountain Face-Off and 21 in ’22 will be held outside in the Bellagio fountain and Las Vegas strip respectively. Individual winners of each event will earn $30,000.

2022 NHL All-Star Game Rosters Revealed

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Jan 26: After Batherson was injured last night, the league has announced that Brady Tkachuk will replace him and be the Senators’ representative.

Jan 13: During a live reveal on ESPN’s SportsCenter program in the United States, the National Hockey League unveiled their four divisional rosters for the 2022 NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Eight skaters and two goalies were announced for each team, leaving one skater spot open for each division. That last spot will once again be decided by a fan vote, who they can select by voting at NHL.com/LastMenIn.

The head coaches of each team were announced earlier, decided by the teams in first place (by points percentage) in their division on New Years Day. Florida’s Andrew Brunette heads the Atlantic Division, Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour will coach the Metropolitan Division, Colorado’s Jared Bednar is the bench boss for the Central Division, and Vegas’ Peter DeBoer will serve as the Pacific Division’s coach.

Below are the full rosters for each division.

Atlantic Division

F Auston Matthews “C” (Toronto Maple Leafs)
F Drake Batherson (Ottawa Senators)
F Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins)
F Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida Panthers)
F Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings)
F Nick Suzuki (Montreal Canadiens)
D Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo Sabres)
D Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning)
G Jack Campbell (Toronto Maple Leafs)
G Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning)

Metropolitan Division

F Alex Ovechkin “C” (Washington Capitals)
F Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Claude Giroux (Philadelphia Flyers)
F Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils)
F Chris Kreider (New York Rangers)
D Adam Fox (New York Rangers)
D Adam Pelech (New York Islanders)
D Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Frederik Andersen (Carolina Hurricanes)
G Tristan Jarry (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Central Division

F Nathan MacKinnon “C” (Colorado Avalanche)
F Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets)
F Alex DeBrincat (Chicago Blackhawks)
F Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota Wild)
F Clayton Keller (Arizona Coyotes)
F Jordan Kyrou (St. Louis Blues)
F Joe Pavelski (Dallas Stars)
D Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche)
G Juuse Saros (Nashville Predators)
G Cam Talbot (Minnesota Wild)

Pacific Division

F Connor McDavid “C” (Edmonton Oilers)
F Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers)
F Jordan Eberle (Seattle Kraken)
F Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary Flames)
F Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings)
F Timo Meier (San Jose Sharks)
F Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights)
D Alex Pietrangelo (Vegas Golden Knights)
G Thatcher Demko (Vancouver Canucks)
G John Gibson (Anaheim Ducks)

Several Golden Knights Enter COVID Protocol

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Dec 27: Less than a week later, the Golden Knights have announced that Brett Howden and head coach Pete DeBoer are also now unavailable due to the COVID protocol. Vegas is supposed to play the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow night.

Dec 21: The Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning are currently still scheduled to play this evening in the final game before the NHL’s holiday break, but not every player will be on the ice. Evgenii Dadonov and Alex Pietrangelo are both unavailable for the Golden Knights tonight due to the league’s COVID protocol.

Losing those two is obviously a huge blow, though the Golden Knights did have Nolan Patrick back at practice in a regular jersey today. Mark Stone also practiced in full. One of those two could potentially enter the lineup for Dadonov if they are ready, but it’s much more difficult to replace Pietrangelo given all that he does for the team.

The 31-year-old has logged almost 26 minutes a night this season for Vegas as the team tries to navigate through COVID absences and injuries, recording 22 points in 31 games in the process. That’s good enough for 10th among all league defenders, just ahead of teammate Shea Theodore who plays an equally important role.

Still, it’s obvious that the NHL wishes to get through as many games as possible before shutting things down for a few days. The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers were set to play each other despite several absences until a number of other positives were revealed today. Whether these two entering the protocol is enough for the league to postpone it remains to be seen. Regardless, Pietrangelo and Dadonov will miss several other contests if they have tested positive and are held out for a minimum of ten days. The Golden Knights are set to resume play on December 27 in the first half of a back-to-back.

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