Report: Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez expected to return Saturday

After Vegas transferred winger Reilly Smith to LTIR on Friday night, it felt like there was a corresponding roster move coming. That move comes on their back end as ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports that the Golden Knights have activated defenseman Alec Martinez off LTIR.

The 34-year-old has been out since mid-November due to a facial injury and nerve damage and wound up missing a lot more time than initially expected. Martinez was expected to resume skating after the holiday break but landed in COVID protocol for three weeks, postponing his return to the ice until the end of January. From there, it has taken seven weeks for Martinez to be cleared to return and for Vegas to free up the cap space to activate him off LTIR. With Smith’s $5M heading to LTIR yesterday, they opened up enough space for Martinez’s $5.25M to come back.

Martinez’s return will be a big one for a Vegas back end that has undoubtedly missed his reliability in the defensive end. He has averaged just under 20 minutes a game this season and should slide back into the top four quickly as the Golden Knights look to get back into the playoff picture. They’re one point out of the last wild card spot heading into play Saturday.

Vegas still has three regulars on LTIR – Smith, winger Mark Stone, and defenseman Brayden McNabb. At this point in time, they don’t have enough cap room to activate any of them when they’ll be ready to return so even with the trade deadline now having passed, their cap situation will still be something to keep an eye on over the final few weeks of the season.