Alex Pietrangelo Thrilled About Ivan Barbashev Acquisition
Alex Pietrangelo and Ivan Barbashev were teammates together when St. Louis won the Stanley Cup in 2019. Barbashev is now reunited with Pietrangelo in Vegas after the Golden Knights struck a trade to land the Russian forward. The former Blues captain seems very excited to have Barbashev back on his side in Vegas.
“This is a good pick up for us. An under-rated pick up for us,” said Pietrangelo, who captained the Blues to their Stanley Cup in 2019. “He’ll fit in really well. The first thing guys ask when you get a player from another team is what’s he like off the ice. On the ice, he’s versatile and can play up and down the lineup. Last year in St. Louis he played up and he had 60 points. This year he’s playing down and his offense had dropped a bit but he’s still producing. The year we won, he played on the fourth line in a shutdown role against Boston’s best players and he was a big reason why we won. He’s versatile, he plays the game hard and he likes to win.”
“He’s really excited. So is his wife. We spent a lot of time together off the ice. A lot of dinners over the years,” said Pietrangelo. “Every time you have a friend join you on your team it’s a good thing. He plays in every situation and he’s tough to play against. You want guys that are hard to play against in the playoffs. He has that physical mentality and it wears on the other team.”
If you’re a Knights fan, how do these words not fire you up? Anything Pietrangelo says can’t be taken likely. We’ve already been over how respected Petro is around the league. Barbashev is going to be a glue guy that hits, scores goals, and can do it in any role in the lineup. In a wide open Western Conference, every single move is going to matter.
