It's unlikely the Vegas Golden Knights will be active before the March 1 trade deadline.
The team can begin making deals - not involving current roster players - as soon as the final payment is submitted to the league, but, as owner Bill Foley explains, getting the final paperwork in on time will be a daunting task.
"We’ve been shooting for the 28th," Foley said, according to Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Originally, the final payment wasn’t due until April 5. But then we moved it up to early March so (general manager) George (McPhee) can attend the general manager meetings in Florida the first week of March. Now, we’re trying to move it up even earlier to be involved in the trade deadline and I’m not sure we’re going to be able to make it.
"The money’s not the problem. We have the money. It’s signing off on everything and I don’t know if we’re going to make it or not. There’s a stack of documents I have to sign to get this done that is unbelievable."
In the mean time, Foley confirmed that McPhee has been having talks with fellow GMs and, due to the potential inability to be involved in transactions at the deadline, the GM meetings are what the team is more interested in.
"George has had informal conversations with several teams but I don’t think George is not going to be too anxious to do a transaction and give up our flexibility in selecting players," Foley said. "It’s going to have to be an improvement over what we otherwise would have.
"But we want him at the GM meetings because that’s where policy changes get made and we want a seat at the table when that happens."
Even if Foley and company were to get the final payment in before the deadline, as NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also noted to Carp, there's very little the team can do trade-wise.
"The trade deadline is virtually irrelevant to the Vegas franchise at this point because they won’t be able to make trades involving real players under contract," Daly said. "They have no player assets to offer and they can’t acquire any in the form of real players. So every trade and transaction Las Vegas would be able to make before the trade deadline, they will be able to make after the trade deadline."
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