Trades With Vegas Will Not Be Announced Until June 21st

The news that none of us wanted to hear was confirmed today, as Pierre LeBrun of TSN relays a communication from the league to teams today. They were each instructed not to reveal any trades made with the Vegas Golden Knights before the June 21st event, in which the expansion rosters will be announced alongside the NHL Awards ceremony. This is likely why we haven’t heard much from the expansion franchise despite GM George McPhee claiming that he wanted to start ironing out deals last week. It seems at least a handful of teams will have trades to announce, making the Awards show must-see television for any hockey fan next week.

It’s interesting that the league would have to go out of their way to make sure no leaks happen, as it’s hard to imagine any gain from a team revealing it’s expansion draft plans. As it stands, teams like Anaheim can still use the leverage of a possible deal in any trade talks with other teams. It will be interesting to see just how many deals are revealed during the draft, as already Chicago, Anaheim and Columbus have been seriously linked.

For all the talk about how weak the expansion class is for the Golden Knights to choose from, it does seem like they’ve done a good job so far extracting every bit of leverage out of the situation to acquire assets that may have not been available. If they can secure good young players or picks in return for avoiding a certain selection, it will only strengthen their program down the line. Because they’re not realistically expected to compete for a few years, even a young player like Josh Manson who is three years away from free agency may be less valuable to them than the asset they’ll acquire not to take him.