from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

There is a temptation to say there has never been a moment quite like this before in NHL history – where George McPhee, the general manager of the Vegas Golden Knights, is acting as a broker for the mixed bag of talent made available to him Sunday morning as part of the 2017 expansion draft proceedings.

For 72 hours, or until Vegas finalizes its expansion roster after striking its many and varied side deals, McPhee is the ringmaster of the NHL circus, overseeing a massive churning of NHL rosters.

It is a unique – but not unprecedented – moment in time that is creating trading opportunities for some teams and protection issues for others.

Under the protocols established for this expansion draft, the first of the salary-cap era, NHL teams cannot make trades with each other, only with Vegas, between now and the Golden Knights’ roster reveal, which is scheduled to take place Wednesday night in conjunction with the NHL’s annual awards ceremony.

Within that time frame, the Golden Knights can make any type of transaction they want – from side deals with existing teams interested in protecting assets, to flip deals, in which Vegas would draft a specific player from one team’s unprotected list and then flip that player to another team for other considerations.

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