Knights ‘falling into place’
Minnesota’s Matt Dumba might be the top pairing on defence. And from Nashville’s James Neal to Florida’s Jonathan Marchessault, the Golden Knights should have more than enough scoring options to make watching their games enjoyable. Then again, who knows? Things are not 100 per cent yet finalized, but McPhee, said he is happy with where things are heading. The team unveiled its jersey on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, we’ll see which players will be wearing them.
“There’s going to be some uncertainty. But I think we actually planned for everything,” said McPhee. “I think it’s going to be a pretty good team. We’re happy that we’ve got a lot of defencemen, we’ve got really good goaltending, we’ve got a lot of centres and we’ve got scoring on the wings. We should have good speed. So it’s going to be a good team.
“There are going to be some guys that we hope are going to be core players for us for a long time.”
There will be some last-minute trades, some more side deals for the future, and because the Golden Knights have to choose one player from each team, “throwaway picks.” When asked if he had completed half a dozen transactions, McPhee said “certainly at least that.”
The number is probably closer to a dozen, if not more.
“We’ve tried to talk to every club before we make a selection and different things result from that,” said McPhee, who had planned to speak with Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello and several other general managers once more on Tuesday. “So I certainly haven’t been able to keep track of it. I guess we’ll tally it all up in the end and you guys can tell us how we did.
“I think we’ve done pretty well in all the positions … It’s what we’re trying to accomplish, which is hav-