- Vegas moved Alex Pietrangelo back to LTIR for the 2026-27 season
- GM Kelly McCrimmon said the two-time Cup champion’s status is not expected to change
- Read below for what the move means for Vegas and their cap space
Alex Pietrangelo’s playing career is all but over.
The Vegas Golden Knights moved the veteran defenseman back to long-term injured reserve for the 2026-27 season on July 1, and general manager Kelly McCrimmon made it clear this week that nobody should expect that to change. Pietrangelo will sit out the final year of his contract and stay off the ice through the season and the 2027 playoffs.
McCrimmon told reporters that Pietrangelo still comes around the team’s facilities and has even started coaching local baseball. The lower-body injuries that shut him down last season haven’t let up.
Watch the local update on where things stand with his hockey future:
The end of the 2025-26 season had briefly pulled Pietrangelo off LTIR and back onto the roster. Vegas reversed that on July 1 and put him right back, which locks in the 2024-25 campaign as his last one in an NHL lineup.
He was still good in that final year. Pietrangelo put up 33 points and a plus-11 in 71 games at age 35, running Vegas’s penalty kill and logging heavy minutes next to Shea Theodore on the top pair.
That partnership was a big part of the 2023 Stanley Cup. It was the second ring of his career after he captained the St. Louis Blues to their first title in 2019. Pietrangelo walks away with 1,087 games, 637 points, and Norris Trophy votes in eight different seasons.
He first stepped away from hockey last summer as the hip trouble mounted, and the picture hasn’t gotten any brighter since.
There’s a business side to this too. Keeping Pietrangelo’s $8.8 million on season-ending LTIR hands Vegas real cap relief during free agency, money the Golden Knights can put toward extensions and roster help for a team still built to win right now.
Here’s a look at how Vegas’s cap sheet shapes up for next season:
Pietrangelo won’t suit up again, but his fingerprints are all over two championships and one of the best blue lines Vegas has ever iced.
