Despite hopes they may get involved, the Vegas Golden Knights will not be ready to make deals by the NHL’s trade deadline, club owner Bill Foley told KXNT Radio Tuesday.
The team will be able to start making transactions once Foley makes his final payment to the league, but that won’t occur prior to March 1.
“We won’t make it before the trade deadline. The documentation is unbelievable. I have documentation with the league on a franchise agreement. I have documentation on a loan we are taking out with CitiBank. I’ve got my personal stuff, which all has to get in and get approved. If you saw the stack of documents you’d say it’s not a pretty picture,” Foley said on-air (via The Sin Bin).
General manager George McPhee will be able to make player-related transactions and attend the NHL’s March 6-8 GM meetings once the paperwork is finalized, according to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
In the meantime, Vegas is scouting players and McPhee is taking calls from opposing general managers interested in protecting some of their exposed players.
“Obviously he still can’t acquire players who are still playing the 2016-17 season, but he can acquire draft picks, he can acquire [unsigned draft choices], sign draft choices, player assets. He can start making deals associated with the expansion draft,” Daly said.
“George is having informal calls, informal talks with various GMs. Other teams want to do more than we want to do,” Foley said.
“They want to lock up some of their players for the playoff run and after the playoff run. We aren’t going to get ahead of ourselves. George is going to make good deals. George is a deal maker, especially in hockey. If we give up the right to draft a good player, we are going to get something good for it.”
