Vegas holds all the cards

The time for talk is over. George McPhee has said as much to his fellow general managers, informing them that Monday was the final day for discussions regarding trades and free agents.

According to the general manager of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, the team’s brain trust will spend Tuesday making its final selections to fill out its roster as part of the highly anticipated expansion draft. The team will then discuss its picks to the league to ensure the proper regulations have be followed before submitting its final choices Wednesday morning.

In the process, McPhee has been encouraged by the reaction free agents and their representatives have shown when contacted by the Knights. Vegas is in the midst of an exclusive window to sign free agents and is being active on that front.

“They have been very excited,” McPhee said Monday. “They have been delighted to hear from us and have been aggressive in trying to do things with us, so obviously that’s fantastic for this franchise.”

As for trades, the Knights could already have deals in place with the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets and Anaheim Ducks to avoid picking certain players. Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen and Josh Hanson, New York’s Calvin de Haan, Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome, and the Jackets’ Josh Anderson are believed to be among those. Keeping those reported trades in mind, here’s Postmedia’s mock draft of what the Knights roster might look like, including the 2017-18 cap hit for each player.