Lots of his game has wow factor and is immediately discernable but the subtleties in Pietrangelo's game are what separates him from most of his peers. Watching him day in and day out and seeing how few unforced errors he makes as well as the superiority of his decision making makes it clear he is truly a special player.
Last season, Pietrangelo ranked fourth among all NHL D in scoring chances off the rush and third in high danger scoring chances among all NHL D while ranking fifth in scoring.
The offense is obvious but Pietrangelo is an elite defender as well logging the hardest minutes and going deep into the playoffs for the past few seasons with the Blues.
Vegas hockey fans are about to be impressed by Pietrangelo. In the club's last tune-up scrimmage over the weekend, he was spectacular. He's the elite two-way defender most Stanley Cup champion teams have in today's era. Victor Hedman in Tampa, Pietrangelo in St. Louis and John Carlson in Washington for example.
Keeping Nick: Veteran blueliner Nick Holden cleared waivers on Tuesday which is excellent news for GM Kelly McCrimmon. Vegas now has 10 NHL defensemen they can access for this season. Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore, Holden, Zach Whitecloud, Brayden McNabb, Alec Martinez, Jake Bischoff, Dylan Coghlan, Carl Dahlstrom and Nic Hague.
In a regular season, NHL GMs will tell you it takes 10 defensemen to go deep into the playoffs. With this season's compacted schedule, this maxim may ring truer than ever.
Cap compliance: Running Holden through waivers allows the VGK to assign him to the taxi squad and or AHL's Henderson Silver Knights while providing enough salary relief to make Vegas cap compliant.
A calculated maneuver which doubly paid off as the Golden Knights get to keep the player and get under the cap. McCrimmon got the best player available in free agency (Pietrangelo), extended an elite goalie (Robin Lehner) all while keeping another elite goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury) on his roster. The cap gymnastics may have produced angst in some corners but the more important result is the best VGK on-paper roster yet.
There's been some noise this off-season about "roster churn," but it's a non-story in Vegas. Yes, saying goodbye to people like Cody Eakin, Nate Schmidt and Paul Stastny is difficult. But McCrimmon's job is to make the hard decisions which put Vegas in a better position to win the Stanley Cup which he certainly achieved this offseason.
