Jeffrey T. Barnes / AP
St. Louis Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (27) looks on during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, in Buffalo, N.Y.
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Alex Pietrangelo pondered for just a second when asked if anything about living in Las Vegas surprised him.
“I guess, a little, the motivation to go down to the Strip,” he said. “I didn’t really know a whole lot about this area. Everyone knows it for what it is. But now living here, the desire to go down there isn’t as much as I thought, other than for the food.”
Folks, he’s officially a local now.
Pietrangelo signed a seven-year deal with the Golden Knights this season after spending the previous 12 years with the St. Louis Blues. He and his family moved here recently, starting Vegas’ newest star’s acclimation process to not just a new team, but a new city as well.
“It’s a whole new world that we didn’t even know was here in the city,” he said. “It’s exciting for us. It’s part of going somewhere new and trying something different.”
Pietrangelo has been a Golden Knight since Oct. 12, but has only been a valley resident for about a month. The former Blues captain got his affairs in order in St. Louis, spent one more Thanksgiving in his home of over a decade, then made the trek westward.
Though Monday was the first day of official training camp, Pietrangelo has been skating with his new Golden Knights teammates since he arrived. And while his reputation as an elite defenseman preceded him, he’s still made an impact.
“It’s what we expect from him. He’s a top-five defenseman in the NHL for the past couple of years,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “He makes his presence noticeable, he’s everywhere on the ice, he makes all the right plays out there. He definitely achieved our expectations I think as a group. He’s been a great guy off the ice to get to know. Honestly, he’s been amazing.”
Pietrangelo spent the first day of camp on Monday playing alongside Brayden McNabb, the longtime partner of the player Pietrangelo replaced: Nate Schmidt. Vegas signed Pietrangelo and traded Schmidt to Vancouver near-simultaneously, making it easy for Pietrangelo to slide into the recently vacated spot on the top pair.
He called it a seamless transition. McNabb is known as a stay-at-home defensive defenseman, which has allowed past partners like Schmidt and Shea Theodore to flex their muscles offensively. Expect a similar arrangement when Pietrangelo and McNabb are together in games.
“If you can play with everybody, it’s certainly a luxury to have on the back end,” Pietrangelo said. “Certainly we’ll continue to work on it, but we’ve had good dialogue together between the two of us, so I expect things to work out pretty good.”
Pietrangelo is a coach’s dream, particularly this coach. In his final two years heading the San Jose Sharks, Peter DeBoer had two star defensemen at his disposal in Norris Trophy winners Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns.
Now he has another top duo. Neither Pietrangelo nor Theodore have won a Norris as the league’s top defenseman — Pietrangelo finished fourth last season and Theodore finished sixth. Only Carolina matches Vegas as teams with two top-10 finishers.
DeBoer has experience playing against Pietrangelo too. As Golden Knights he faced off against the Blues in the postseason round-robin last summer, and DeBoer’s Sharks faced St. Louis in the Western Conference Final in 2019.
“He looks a lot better in our uniform than in a St. Louis uniform playing against us,” DeBoer said. “I know the player well, having coached against him for a long time in this league, and he’s even more impressive in person.”
As wowed by the Golden Knights are with the early returns on Pietrangelo, the feeling is mutual. He wouldn’t have left the only team he’s ever known to sign for seven years in Vegas if he wasn’t excited about the team. He said he was impressed by the speed of the forwards and believes he has a chance to lift the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons.
He also said it’s hard to get a gauge on what the team looks like during informal skates. He joked that you don’t worry too much about defensive assignments during offseason workouts, but with opening night less than two weeks away, that will come.
“As we get on through camp and start playing some more scrimmages, it will continue to get more fun,” Pietrangelo said. “You can just see the energy, right? It’s fun to get back and play some real hockey.”
He’s still getting to know all his teammates, just like he’s getting to know the city. He’s fitting in nicely with the Golden Knights on the ice, and it sounds like he’s already falling in love with the city, too.
The way he talks about going to the Strip, well he sounds like a local already.
“Getting acclimated with the city and the people and the teammates and the kids and all that is important because you want to come to work and feel comfortable,” he said. “So far, so good.”
