Pietrangelo, Perry pay off for Montreal, Vegas

Alex Pietrangelo and Corey Perry had very different free agent experiences last offseason.

Pietrangelo got a private plane trip to Vegas for an in-person meeting with the Golden Knights when the market opened and got a long-term contract worth over $61 million. Perry waited until December to sign a one-year deal just above the NHL veteran minimum.

Each veteran with Stanley Cup-winning experience has played a key role in helping his team reach the semifinals, a series the Golden Knights lead going into Game 2 at home against the Canadiens today.

Coach Peter DeBoer and general manager Kelly McCrimmon called Pietrangelo the best player during the team’s second-round series against Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado, mainly for the work not seen on the stat sheet.

“He played extremely well,” McCrimmon said. “Played big minutes every night. Maybe one of the things that’s not visible to people just watching the game is the poise, confidence, calmness he brings to a team is really valuable.”

Those are attributes that DeBoer and McCrimmon said stem from his longevity in St. Louis, where he captained the Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019.

He has become comfortable enough to bolster the blue line and lead the team during the regular season averaging 24:26 of ice time. He’s kept pace in the postseason with a team-high 24:06 a game.

Pietrangelo is also tied for third on the team with eight points in 14 playoff games, including his first goal of the postseason that broke a tie late in the second period of Game 6, helping Vegas eliminate Colorado.

“This year, point-production number, people focused on too much,” DeBoer said. “His analytics were excellent. When you dug down below the actual stat line — goals, assists, points — his analytics were great. His defensive and offensive metrics were all really good compared to the previous year. We knew there was a real good foundation for his game: the pucks just weren’t going in.”

The puck is going in for Perry this playoffs. He has three goals and four assists to tie for third in scoring on the Canadiens.

But for Montreal interim coach Dominique Ducharme, much like DeBoer with Pietrangelo, it’s more than stats and analytics. It’s the passion, and experience, and leadership that Perry exudes to teammates.

Ducharme said it’s nice to have the 36-year-old to bounce ideas off of, somewhat of an extension of the coaching staff.

“Guys like him, quite often when we talk together, we talk a lot about the mindset of our team, where we’re at, the way we’re thinking, the way we’re reacting,” Ducharme said. “It’s more mental when we talk about things with Corey, Shea (Weber), and those guys when we sit down together. It’s more about those kind of things than really X’s and O’s.”

Perry was on the Dallas Stars that beat Vegas in the Western Conference final in last year’s playoffs in the bubble. After 14 years with the Ducks, during which he hoisted the Cup in 2007 and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2010-11, free agency in Perry’s mid30s wasn’t easy.

“I didn’t have anything and didn’t know what was going to happen, didn’t know where the future was going to go,” Perry said. “Some things, you just have to wait your turn. And good things happen to people who wait. I was fortunate enough to get the call.”