Vegas signs Pietrangelo to $ 61.6M, seven- year contract
Alex Pietrangelo is Vegas bound, and the Golden Knights are shuffling the deck to fit him in.
Pietrangelo signed a $ 61.6 million, seven- year deal with Vegas on Monday that carries an $ 8.8 million annual salary cap hit through 2027. It’s the fifth- biggest cap hit for a defenseman in the NHL.
Adding the top free agent available gives Vegas another big- money talent, but the team needed to make another move to shed salary just to add him. Before registering Pietrangelo’s contract, the Golden Knights traded defenseman Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks for a 2022 third- round pick, clearing his $ 5.95 million cap hit off the books.
After already sending center Paul Stastny to Winnipeg, the team likely needs to make another move, such as trading goaltender Marc- Andre Fleury, to be cap compliant when next season starts.
But Pietrangelo, who finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting and is one of the best rightshooting defensemen in the league, makes Vegas better.
The 30- year- old leaves the St. Louis Blues after serving as captain of their 2019 Stanley Cup championship team.
Pietrangelo is coming off scoring a career- high 16 goals despite the season being cut short at 70 games.
Pietrangelo has 109 goals and 341 assists for 450 points in 758 regular- season NHL games. He had a postseason- best 16 assists and averaged almost 26 minutes of ice time during the Blues’ Cup run.
“He has been a stalwart player for us, for this team for a number of years,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Friday night. “A huge part of a championshipcaliber team. He’s going to go down so far as one of the best Blues ever.”
St. Louis moved on from Pietrangelo, a homegrown prospect who was the No. 4 pick in the 2008 draft, before he did. The Blues signed former Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug to a $ 45.5 million, seven- year contract Friday, essentially ruling them out of keeping Pietrangelo after more than a year’s worth of negotiations couldn’t amount to an agreement.
“We couldn’t find something that made everyone comfortable,” Armstrong said. “It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last time this happens in the NHL. You just wish it didn’t happen because of the respect and the desire we had to keep Alex here.”
Pietrangelo becomes the last of the top- tier free agents to find a landing spot, after Taylor Hall signed an $ 8 million, one- year deal with the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. Krug was the other, and winger Mike Hoffman is the top player left on the market after a 29- goal, 59- point season with the Florida Panthers.
Hall took the opposite approach of Pietrangelo and Krug with the cap staying flat amid pandemic- ravaged revenues.
“We knew it was going to be a unique marketplace coming into free agency,” Hall said Tuesday.
“Once free agency started, I think we were made aware pretty quickly at how much things had changed and how COVID had affected a lot of different things. So, it kind of changed our decision- making from there.”
Blackhawks agree to 1- year deals with Janmark, Ullmark.
CHICAGO » The Chicago Blackhawks agreed to one- year contracts with Mattias Janmark and Lucas Wallmark on Monday, adding a pair of forwards to help make up for the loss of Brandon Saad.
Janmark’s contract carries a salary- cap hit of $ 2.25 million. Wallmark’s cap number is $ 950,000. Saad was traded to Colorado on Saturday, and the 27- year- old Janmark could step into his role on Chicago’s penaltykilling unit.
The 25- year- old Wallmark played for Carolina and Florida last season. He had 11 goals and 12 assists in 60 games with the Hurricanes, and then had a goal and an assist in seven games with the Panthers.
Janmark had six goals and 15 assists in 27 games for Dallas last season. He also had one goal and seven assists in 26 postseason appearances, helping the Stars reach the Stanley Cup Final.
Rangers agree with top pick Lafrenière on rookie contract.
Alexis Lafrenière isn’t going back to play junior hockey in Quebec, and the Rangers hope he’s on the ice in New York sooner than later.
The Rangers agreed to terms Monday with the No. 1 draft pick on his three- year, entry- level contract that includes the lucrative bonuses typical for a player selected in that spot.
Lafrenière as expected won’t return to Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, which has started its season, and general manager Jeff Gorton hopes to get him to the New York area by early November to begin training for next season.
“We’re really excited about getting him signed,” Gorton said.