Pietrangelo was the biggest unrestricted free agent available. The defenseman signed a seven-year contract Oct. 12 after playing his first 12 NHL seasons for the St. Louis Blues and winning the Stanley Cup as their captain in 2019.
The Golden Knights have become known for big moves. They signed Lehner to a five-year contract Oct. 3, keeping the goalie from becoming an unrestricted free agent. He was traded to Vegas by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 24 (after Toronto acquired him from the Chicago Blackhawks earlier in the day). He replaced Marc-Andre Fleury as the No. 1 goalie in the postseason, with the Golden Knights advancing to the Western Conference Final before losing to the Dallas Stars.
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General manager Kelly McCrimmon said Oct. 12 that Lehner and Fleury would enter this season as Vegas' goalies.
To clear room under the NHL salary cap for Pietrangelo, the Golden Knights traded Stastny, a center, to the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 9 and Schmidt, a defenseman, to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 12.
"When we looked at free agency, when we looked at opportunities to improve our team, we had what we believed was an incredibly rare opportunity to add a defenseman, an elite player like Alex, to our team," McCrimmon said. "At the end of that process, we asked ourselves, 'Does this make us a better team? Does this improve our chances of winning?' We believe quite strongly that it does."
Here is what the Golden Knights look like today:
