CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- Alex Pietrangelo was ready to walk away from it all. The money, the big contract, the fame that came with it, the only thing he knew how to do, which was play hockey. None of it mattered at the time.
When he thinks about it on this day, the day he got to celebrate his second Stanley Cup with family and some of his closest friends he made in St. Louis, this time as a defenseman for the Vegas Golden Knights, the 33-year-old is still amazed how quickly things changed.
And they changed for the better, as he watched his 4-year-old daughter Evelyn, glistening from wearing a shiny golden dress of Vegas' colors, running around without a care in the world at his and Jayne Pietrangelo's residence on Monday.
"If I had to (walk away), I would have," the former Blues defenseman and fourth overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft said. "That was probably the first time I've actually said to myself, 'I can't even think about playing hockey right now.' It didn't even cross my mind. You put your family first, right? I think I've said to people before your priorities sometimes get lost and they kind of straighten you out. It's been a tough seven, eight months, but she's here, she's healthy, which is probably the most important thing. It'll bring you closer together as a family, that's for sure."
Evelyn Pietrangelo had the flu, along with her mom and brothers Oliver and Theodore -- born as triplets in 2018 -- or so that's what they thought was the case with everyone. But for Evelyn, it was unfortunately something more serious, diagnosed as encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. A young child was practically lifeless at the time, leaving her parents frantic.
Pietrangelo played his last game on Nov. 26 at home against Vancouver. He credits his wife, who he met here in St. Louis and whose family got to share in the experience of a second Stanley Cup with him, for keeping not only him but their young family together.
It's not as if this family hadn't been through enough already, having lost their first child, son Gabriel, due to complications with the pregnancy in 2017.
"We talked about it, it was a wild year what Jayne and I went through," Pietrangelo said. 'Yeah, from where we were, taking a month off and then me coming back and playing. Credit to her. I said I wouldn't come back and play until I knew things were OK at home. Without her, without Jayne, I was lost because she finally said, 'OK, I think I can do this and you can go back and play.' That's what it takes from a strong family to get through those things. None of us in our business can do what we do without the better halves if you've got kids. I got lucky, I got a good one."
Jayne Pietrangelo, who gave birth to the couple's fourth child, daughter Julia, in 2020, can look back now and be grateful that the family is in a better place than it was seven months ago.
"Thinking back on it, it was a really difficult time for our family, and I just remember waking up that Sunday morning," Jayne Pietrangelo recalled. "He was supposed to head to the East Coast. For the most part, myself and the kids had the flu and I was like, 'I don't think you can go on this trip. Evelyn really needs to go see a doctor. I need you to take her to the hospital.' I don't want to get other kids sick. And so he did. He had kind of a look of fear in his eye, like how am I supposed to call the team and tell them I can't make this road trip? But I'm really thankful and I'm glad he understood how severe it was to see Evelyn in a distressed state. As far as giving it up, yeah, they couldn't give us a timeline for when she would get better since it was a brain injury. We just reflected on what really mattered. He said, 'I'll go back when you feel Evelyn is in an OK place and you're OK mentally.' I'm sure that was a difficult thought process for him, but family comes first."
Pietrangelo called Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon and coach Bruce Cassidy and told them what was going on. At that time, he had to be a father, not a hockey player.
"A lot of praying," Pietrangelo recalled. "The family is strong, a courageous wife. The one thing I do say is the [Vegas] organization is amazing. Not once did they ask me when I was coming back. I'd say every day or every other day they were asking, 'What can we do for you? How are things?' It wasn't even a question of, 'When are you coming back?' It was more of, 'Let us know when you're ready.' That was a breath of fresh air of not feeling any pressure of forcing me to get back to work."
Evelyn was treated by doctors and she was on the road to recovery, fortunately, and by Dec. 17 against the New York Islanders in Vegas, Pietrangelo was back on the ice. He wouldn't miss another game the rest of the season, 50 regular-season games and 21 more in the playoffs.
Pietrangelo, Jayne and their four children opened the day Monday eating cereal, Doritos and Sun Chips from the Stanley Cup before taking it to one of his favorite spots for some golfing at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta before bringing it home with family -- mostly Jayne's -- and close friends, culminated by dinner with roughly 35-40 people, at one of Pietrangelo's favorite eateries: Peppe's Apt 2 in Kirkwood.
In 2019 when he won the Cup with the Blues, Pietrangelo had a day with it twice, once in his hometown in King City, Ontario with his family, including parents Joe and Edi Pietrangelo before having a day in St. Louis with Jayne and her family.
Since this is like a second home for him, Pietrangelo was more than happy to spend it here again, and grateful he could watch his kids, who understand more so now what did accomplished than he did four years ago.
"I've lived most of my adult life here," Pietrangelo said. "I would have loved to bring it back home to Toronto, but we only get it one day. The kids are here, so it was just easier to do it here. We're going back up to see my parents anyway. It was a little bit earlier than we were going to get it because Evelyn's got to get back for therapy and kids start school in August. It's a short summer for all of us. You've got kids and then they're in school, so you've got to kind of work around that. Monday's not ideal, but it kind of worked out to give everybody enough notice."
Music to the Pietrangelo's ears: kids functions, thinking about school ... the things parents should be focused on, not what they went through and what Evelyn went through in late November, early December.
"Obviously it worked out, and to go from that to him winning the Stanley Cup for the second time, it's like what a turnaround," Jayne Pietrangelo said.