Alex Pietrangelo didn’t look like himself for a good portion of last season. We now have a good understanding as to exactly why that was the case, as he played the entire season on hips that were barely connected to his body. The injury likely means the end of Pietrangelo’s career, paving the way for Mitch Marner’s arrival in Las Vegas.
Most have applauded the VGK offseason as one of the best in the league. They clearly added the most impactful player and found a way to replace Nic Roy and Nic Hague with Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon. However, the loss of Pietrangelo is massive to the VGK defense, and there’s no replacement in sight.
From the moment he set foot in Vegas, he assumed the role of 1A on the VGK blueline, playing the most minutes, against the opposing teams’ top lines, and in all situations. He was the first guy over the boards on every penalty kill, was always on the ice defending leads late against the empty net, and he took most of the offensive draws when the Golden Knights were behind.
Even in the battered and beaten-down state he played through last year which forced him to miss 11 regular season games, one playoff game, and 4 Nations, Pietrangelo’s impact to the Vegas defense was immense. There’s no better metric to illustrate this than JFresh Hockey’s “Stuff per 60” metric.
The metric is essentially a collection of all game involvements a player has during his time on the ice, including shots, passes, hits, blocks, takeaways, transition plays, puck recoveries, d-zone puck touches, and more. It’s then weighted against time on ice to give every player an equal measurement.
Pietrangelo not only set the pace for the Golden Knights during VGK’s 11-game playoff run, he ran away from his peers on the blueline.
In the regular season, Shea Theodore beat out Pietrangelo by the smallest of margins to lead the Golden Knights, and the pair was well ahead of every other VGK defenseman aside from Noah Hanifin.
Another strong metric to show Pietrangelo’s impact is Hockey-Reference’s point shares. The number is a way to try to measure the number of standings points each player accounts for throughout the season. Based on his defense alone, Alex Pietrangelo amassed 4.1 point shares. That’s two wins in the standings, and it doesn’t even take into account the 33 points he scored.
In 2022-23, the year the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup, Pietrangelo posted 4.4 defensive point shares, or just 0.3 more than last season. His 4.1 last year was his 3rd best in five full seasons in Vegas, clearly indicating the injuries didn’t hinder his play completely.
Simply put, the loss of Alex Pietrangelo, even the injury-riddled Alex Pietrangelo that battled through his final season and postseason in the NHL last year, is a big one for the Golden Knights. He’s the only true #1 defenseman Vegas has ever had, and not only aren’t there any replacements on the roster, there aren’t even many available around the league.
