Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee met with media today and spoke about how the process is going now that the NHL movement freeze is on and he’s under the gun to select his expansion team. McPhee announced that this is the last day he’ll be working on side deals with teams, and said he would pick the final expansion roster tomorrow. There have already been reports of as many as seven deals completed with Vegas, though as McPhee said today “nothing is final until it’s final.”
Though deals to protect certain players off their own roster have likely already been hashed out, with the release of the protection lists teams are likely calling to see if they can pull off a post-draft trade with Vegas in order to get a certain player from around the league. It will be interesting to see how many players Vegas flips after the draft in order to get more selections in the upcoming entry draft, or young assets they can use to build. A player like James Neal, who is of little use to the Golden Knights on a one-year deal would likely bring back at least a first-round pick now or at next year’s trade deadline.
All eyes are on McPhee and his staff as they try and build the best organization possible in the next few days. After already seeing some excellent players go unprotected, it is starting to look like a playoff push may be in the cards for Vegas within the first few years of their existence. With Marc-Andre Fleury likely the pick from Pittsburgh, they’ll have a chance to have at least some Stanley Cup experience in the room right away. The roster will be announced during the NHL Awards on Wednesday, June 21st.