Rumor: Expect Vegas trade to go down this week

When general manager George McPhee and the Vegas Golden Knights selected so many defensemen in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, the talk at the time was not if they’d move assets for draft picks, it was when. And while McPhee has recouped some draft picks for players like David Schlemko and Marc Methot, the team still boasts some veteran defenders like Deryk England, Jason Garrison, Luca Sbisa and Clayton Stoner. With still 11 blue liners on their preseason roster, many of whom are waiver eligible, look for McPhee to make a move this week rather than lose a player for nothing.

In his latest article for SinBin a Vegas hockey blog, Jason Pother takes a look at McPhee’s history and sees an obvious tendency to trade waiver eligible players away during the week preceding the opening of the NHL regular season. Might he do the same with his new squad? Most notably, from his time with the Washington Capitals, McPhee has traded away Tom Chorske, Mike Grier and Mathieu Perrault all when it looked like the wouldn’t clear waivers. This time around who bites the bullet?

The above mentioned players are all waiver eligible, but so is youngster Griffin Reinhart. Or what about Brendan Leipsic up front? Surely the Knights wouldn’t want to lose a young player with potential to the waiver wire. So, what’s the move? Stay tuned. McPhee’s trade history tells us that he’ll be working this phones this week.