Who gets picked? It’s complicated

Lots of factors went into our Knights’ mock Expansion Draft

Normally, any mock draft exercise winds up being futile. But trying to guess what the Golden Knights are going to do Wednesday in the NHL Expansion Draft is virtually impossible.

You’re literally flying blind, what with the silence from general manager George Mcphee, the numerous side deals being brokered and not knowing how it all fits under a salary cap that changed Sunday from $73 million to $75 million.

A few caveats before we reveal our selections: First, the picks were made

in part with information that the Knights reportedly have deals working with several teams (Anaheim, Columbus, Chicago, New York Islanders) to either take certain players or steer clear of others.

Second, we had to comply with the NHL Expansion Draft rules, which called for a minimum of three goaltenders, nine defensemen and 14 forwards. We also had to spend 60 percent of the available $75 million on the 30 players.

At least 20 of the players picked had to be under contract for the 2017-18 season.

Finally, we’re taking Mcphee at his word that he wants to go with a young, speedy, tough roster while blending in experience and leadership. That factored into several of the decisions — which Mcphee and the Knights will have to make for real heading into Wednesday.

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter. Draft along with injured forward Mikhail Grabovski. In exchange, the Knights will take veteran forward Nikolai Kulemin in the NHL Expansion Draft on Wednesday.

Kulemin, 30, scored 12 goals and had 23 points in 72 games last season. He is due to make $4,187,500 next season.

Grabovski, 33, sat out the entire 2016-17 season with concussion issues. His salary for 2017-18 would be $5 million. If he’s unable to play, the Knights would pay him his money but his salary would not count against the team’s salary cap.

Newsday first reported the terms of the complicated transaction. If recent reports are accurate about the proposed deal with Columbus where the Blue Jackets would send their first-round pick (No. 24) as compensation for the Knights not selecting certain players and taking on the injured David

MCPHEE

Clarkson’s salary ($5.25 million), Mcphee could be sitting flush in Chicago for the entry draft this weekend. The Golden Knights own the No. 6 overall pick.

“We’re still listening to offers,” Mcphee said Monday morning at the team’s Summerlin offices, where he announced a 9 p.m. moratorium on making deals. “We don’t have any deals finalized, but we’ve told the other teams that we’ll be moving forward with our plans to pick our team.”

The team will put its final 30-man list together Tuesday for submission to the league office. The Knights have until 7 a.m. Wednesday to turn in their roster. The names will be made public later that day at the NHL Awards Show at T-mobile Arena.

While talking to teams, Mcphee said the Knights have also been in discussions with individual unrestricted and restricted free agents. But he didn’t know if the team would sign anyone before Wednesday’s deadline.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions with free agents, we’ve had a lot of agents call, healthy discussions, and at this point, I don’t know what direction things will go with respect to free agents,” he said. “But we are having a lot of dialogue with them.

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

While Mcphee prepares to finalize the list for the expansion draft, he and his amateur hockey staff are working toward Friday’s entry draft. Mcphee said there are daily discussions on preparing for Chicago this weekend.

“We’ve got another office in there preparing for the entry draft,” he said. “We’re doing most of the expansion stuff during the day and at the end of the day, when everybody’s tuckered out, then we go in and deal with the amateur stuff.

“We’re in a good place. We’re really well-prepared for it, and as you know, we’ve had an entire year to prepare for both of these drafts, and we are prepared and organized and that’s why I feel a little more relaxed up here than I anticipated I would be at this time.”

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