Vegas Golden Knights alternate captain Alex Pietrangelo is set to return to the lineup Saturday night after missing nearly a month of action while attending to his daughter’s scary illness — details of which he shared with the media on Saturday afternoon.
In recent weeks, 4-year-old Evelyn Pietrangelo began to experience flu-like symptoms that ultimately worsened significantly as a result of a lesion that developed on her brain.
She lost all motor skills as a result and was unable to talk, walk or open her eyes, with doctors at Sunrise Hospital in Winchester, Nevada, connecting her to a feeding tube. After remaining bedridden in this state for weeks, Evelyn began to improve in recent days and is now able to walk around, with a full recovery expected.
Pietrangelo thanked the Golden Knights organization for his support during a scary time for his family. He returned to the ice on Saturday to participate in the team’s morning skate ahead of their game against the New York Islanders.
The Golden Knights signed Pietrangelo to a seven-year contract as an unrestricted free agent in 2020. The 32-year-old right-handed defenseman has 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) while averaging 23:29 of ice time in 23 games with the Golden Knights to begin the 2022-23 regular season.
Originally selected by the St. Louis Blues in the first round (No. 4 overall) of the 2008 NHL Draft, Pietrangelo spent more than a decade with the Blues and captained the team to the Stanley Cup in 2019. He has appeared in 902 career games with St. Louis and Vegas over parts of 15 NHL seasons since 2008-09.
Pietrangelo skated on a defense pairing with Ben Hutton on Saturday morning. The Golden Knights will host the Islanders at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas at 10 p.m. ET.
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