Expansion Knights already wheeling, dealing
While 30 NHL teams were talking trades ahead of this week’s deadline, the wheeling and dealing is about to begin for the 31st.
The expansion Vegas Golden Knights can begin making trades and signing free agents for next season immediately now that owner Bill Foley’s final payment to the league has cleared. That happened Wednesday afternoon.
The expansion draft is almost four months away, but the Golden Knights could get some clarity — and some assets — very soon now that they’re open for business.
“We’ve been talking with teams here for a few weeks now,” general manager George McPhee said last week. “Teams are looking for some certainty with their rosters and obviously trying to improve their rosters before the trading deadline and they want to talk to us to see if there’s a player that we could agree upon that for a couple months from now to claim, which would make their life easier.”
Most of the talk about the Vegas expansion draft has centered on teams giving up draft picks or prospects to the Golden Knights in exchange for a “hands off” agreement. Maybe it’s worth a midround pick to the Anaheim Ducks not to lose one of their young defensemen or for the Columbus Blue Jackets to guarantee an extra player is safe because they’ll be forced to protect so many with no-movement clauses.
But if McPhee agrees to take, say, Bobby Ryan from the Ottawa Senators, it keeps GM Pierre Dorion from being nervous about losing someone like defenseman Marc Methot. Preparations for the expansion draft are an ongoing chess match with so many pieces in play.
“Ideally we’d like to see the whole universe of who’s protected and who’s exposed before we have to make decisions,” McPhee said. “But there are teams that want to talk now, so we’re listening.”
McPhee has been listening for a while but can now act by agreeing to trades for draft picks or unsigned prospects since the NHL has received the final installment of Foley’s $500 million expansion fee.
It will also allow McPhee to talk future deals in person next week at the general managers meeting.
STREAKING: Filip Forsberg is lighting it up four years after he was traded at the deadline from the Washington Capitals to the Nashville Predators.
Forsberg had hat tricks in back-to-back games last week and in his past five games has 13 points on 10 goals and three assists.
“He’s the best player in the league right now, the way he’s playing,” Predators defenseman P.K. Subban said. “Whatever he’s doing, I don’t know what it is. Just continue doing it.”
TRADES: Colorado traded veteran forward Jarome Iginla to Los Angeles for a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft.
The only other notable move involved Detroit, which sent veteran forward Thomas Vanek to Florida for defenseman Dylan McIlrath and a conditional third-round pick in June.
Wednesday games LIGHTNING 4, HURRICANES 3
(OT): In Tampa, Fla., Victor Hedman scored his second goal of the game 46 seconds into overtime and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves as Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.
Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov also scored to help the Lightning improve to 7-1-2 in the last 10 games. BLACKHAWKS 4, PENGUINS 1: In Chicago, Patrick Kane had his second hat trick in three games and Scott Darling made 36 saves as Chicago beat Pittsburgh for its fifth straight victory and 10th in 11 games.
Richard Panik also scored to help Chicago pull within three points of first-place Minnesota in the Central Division.