Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Contracts of two injured players provide cap relief

- By Steve Carp Contact Steve Carp at scarp@ reviewjour­nal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarpr­j on Twitter.

To no one’s surprise, the NHL careers of Mikhail Grabovski and David Clarkson appear to be over. As a result, the Golden Knights will have a little over $10 million in additional salary cap space for the upcoming season.

The two NHL veterans forwards have not been on the ice the first two days of practice at City National Arena. Grabovski, 33, acquired from the New York Islanders in the expansion draft, has been dealing with concussion issues for nearly two years and did not play last season.

Clarkson, 33, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets the night of the expansion draft, has been plagued with lower-back problems for the past few seasons. Like Grabovski, he didn’t play all of last season.

Grabovski had one season left on his contract at $5 million. Clarkson has three years left at $5.25 million. The Knights are obligated to pay both players.

However, their salaries will not count against the team’s cap, which according to CapFriendl­y.com currently stands at $69,375,832. Deduct the $10.25 million, and it puts the Knights under $60 million. The NHL salary camp maximum for the upcoming season is $75 million. Teams must spend a minimum of $55.4 million.

The team announced it will have a clarificat­ion regarding both players’ status Monday.

Duke injury update

Reid Duke missed his second day of training camp, and the team isn’t sure when 21-year-old rookie center will be back.

Duke, who played in both rookie scrimmages against Los Angeles last week, was examined by team doctors in Las Vegas on Thursday and has not been on the ice since. An update is expected Monday.

Rocky’s run winds down

Rocky Thompson, who will coach the Knights’ American Hockey League affiliate in Chicago, is winding up his time with the Knights this weekend.

Thompson and his staff ran the team’s inaugural rookie camp which saw the Knights split a pair of scrimmages with the Kings. He’ll be heading back to Chicago early next week to get ready for the Wolves’ training camp on Sept. 24, when he expects to see some familiar faces once the Knights start making their cuts.

“It was a great experience for me,” Thompson said. “It’s a great organizati­on to work for, and our players worked really hard and gave me everything they had.”

General manager George McPhee was pleased with Thompson.

“He did a real nice job,” McPhee said. “He interviewe­d really well with us before he got the job, and I like the way he talked to our players and pointed out things that needed to be pointed out.”

The Wolves open Oct. 6 at the Texas Stars, the same night the Knights open their inaugural NHL season in Dallas.

Jerseys on sale

The new Adidas Golden Knights jerseys are finally available. They can be purchased at The Armory, the team’s store at T-Mobile Arena.

Starting Monday, they can also be purchased at The Arsenal, which will be the team’s store at its City National Arena practice facility. The Arsenal has its grand opening scheduled for 10 a.m. that day.

The authentic game jerseys, which retail for $215 without numbers or names, also can be purchased online at vegasteams­tore.com. The replica jerseys, which will be produced by Fanatics, have yet to be released.

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