Report: Alex Pietrangelo, Golden Knights Agree to 7-Year, $61.6M Contract

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

The Vegas Golden Knights are reportedly have succeeded in landing free-agent defenseman Alex Pietrangelo with a seven-year contract worth $8.8 million annually, according to Jesse Granger of The Athletic.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedma reported the 30-year-old will have a full no-movement clause in the contract.

Pietrangelo spent the past 12 seasons with the St. Louis Blues. He finished the 2019-20 season with 16 goals and 36 assists in 70 games.

On the first official day of free agency, the Blues announced Friday they had struck a deal with Torey Krug on a seven-year, $45.5 million contract, effectively ending Pietrangelo’s run in St. Louis. The Blues captain for the last four seasons, Pietrangelo said Saturday that the Krug signing “caught me off guard,” per The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford.

Rutherford reported the Blues were willing to pay Pietrangelo $64 million but over eight years. The no-movement clause may have been a pivotal factor as well.

The Golden Knights emerged as his likely landing spot, and the Canadian took a formal visit to Las Vegas during negotiations.

The Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final during their inaugural 2017-18 season and also made the Western Conference Finals in 2020. Vegas clearly has a wide-open window for contention. Signing the best defenseman on the market was a straightforward proposal.

Of course, there’s always going to be a level of risk when you sign a player who is at the onset of his 30s to a seven-year deal.

While not a perfect comparison, the Golden Knights painted themselves into a corner when they handed a then-33-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury to a three-year, $21 million extension. Offloading Fleury now that Robin Lehner is the starting goaltender is easier said than done.

Should Pietrangelo help Vegas lift the Stanley Cup once during the life of his contract, he will have paid back the team’s investment and then some.