The Golden Knights have taken left-shot defenseman Alec Martinez off injured reserve, per the NHL’s media site. As Martinez was not on long-term injured reserve, his $5.25MM cap hit continued to count toward their salary pool usage, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.
Martinez, 36, was placed on IR on March 6 with a lower-body injury. Failing to place him on LTIR ahead of the March 8 trade deadline suggested that he wouldn’t miss too much time, and that has held true. GM Kelly McCrimmon told Jesse Granger of The Athletic that Martinez underwent an undisclosed procedure earlier this month to address the injury.
Prior to this IR stint, Martinez had landed on the list twice this season due to upper and lower-body injuries. As such, the once-premier shutdown defender had his worst showing in the possession quality control department in quite some time, posting a negative expected rating (-5.3) for the first time since he was traded to Vegas in 2020. His 42.6 CF% at even strength is also a career-low, although his four goals in 16 points in 45 games is double the rate of offensive production he offered last season.
The veteran routinely finishes atop the league leaderboard in shot blocks, averaging 3.15 per game since joining the Golden Knights, which have taken an immense toll on his ability to stay in the lineup. He’s played over 70 games in a season just once over the past six years.
With his return, Vegas has a fully healthy defense corps after needing to cycle through their minor-league depth for most of the season. In addition to Martinez, Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud have each missed significant time this year, including a 34-game absence for an upper-body injury in Theodore’s case. They’ve gotten solid fill-in performances from depth blue-liner Ben Hutton and AHL call-up Kaedan Korczak in the interim, and the deadline pickup of Noah Hanifin for the Flames adds yet another premier name to what’s arguably the league’s deepest defense.
Hanifin has replaced Martinez’s longtime spot on the team’s top pairing with Alex Pietrangelo, so he’s expected to slide down to a third-pairing role alongside Whitecloud in his return to the lineup against the Devils today. Nicolas Hague is expected to be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
The Golden Knights hope Martinez can help stabilize a team that’s suddenly failed to live up to their stingy reputation. The defending Stanley Cup champions are 3-7-1 in their last 11 games, surrendering three or more goals in 10 of those outings. They remain with a three-point cushion on the second wild-card spot in the West with two games in hand on the ninth-place Wild, but they’ll need to return to .500-plus hockey the rest of the way to ensure they don’t miss the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.