from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

“We are going to have to make a few moves, and we have planned for that,” said McPhee, incoming president of hockey operations. “We are going through that exercise right now, and when we’re done, we’ll talk about it and explain it. … We’ll be tight this year on the cap.”

Some moves would be much easier to explain than others.

Here’s one possibility: McPhee shifts enough salary to bring the Knights in line with the $81.5 million cap for this season while keeping the team’s top six forwards together and hoping goalie Marc-Andre Fleury doesn’t show any level of serious decline at age 34.

Such a scenario could potentially deliver a Cup over the next few seasons and earn McPhee a hero’s standing in the history of Las Vegas sports. That’s the uncomplicated version of things.

This is the other version: In order to shed enough cap space — the Knights are reportedly $7.5 million over after Karlsson’s deal — the team could trade a top-six forward such as Max Pacioretty and his $7 million annual salary, signaling that those hamstrung contracts McPhee insists his team doesn’t have actually exist.

Pacioretty has been reported as one who could be moved, and the player carries the sort of cap hit that could immediately solve a chunk of those issues.

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