Serious concerns of NHL GMs exploiting loopholes in the expansion draft.

The National Hockey League general manager meetings are providing some very interesting material this week.

One of the big topics of discussion at the meetings has reportedly been concerns surrounding the upcoming expansion draft that will bring the Las Vegas franchise into the fold of the National Hockey League. More specifically the concerns are about Las Vegas' special negotiating window and how that could be exploited to the advantage of the new organization, effectively a loophole in the NHL's system.

From ESPN insider Pierre Lebrun:

Specifically, GMs worry that Vegas could take advantage of the 48-hour window before the expansion draft in June to quietly agree to terms on a deal with a pending unrestricted free agent, then wait until July 1 to sign him, so as to pluck another player off a team's roster in the expansion draft.

This would circumvent the rule that if a team loses a free agent to Vegas in that 48-hour free-agent-signing window, it cannot lose another player in the expansion draft. Some GMs worry that veteran GM George McPhee, who wasn't born yesterday, would take advantage of the situation.

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George McPhee is of course the man who was recently hired to become the first ever general manager in the history of the Las Vegas franchise, and while all the other NHL general managers appear to be worried about his potential loophole in negotiations, it appears that he himself as some concerns of his own.

"George has the same concerns about existing teams doing those types of deals with players they don't have to protect," said deputy commissioner Bill Daly as per Lebrun.

The NHL will be watching both sides extremely closely, and while there are a great many advantages to doing these types of deals under the table, the NHL has made it clear it will punish anyone caught engaging in this behavior extremely harshly. The cost for getting caught is reportedly a first round draft pick, and there's a good chance that the risk of such a massive penalty will convince most to find other avenues to solve their problems.