In meeting with the media today, GM George McPhee of the Vegas Golden Knights was excited about the prospects of his new expansion team. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet sent out a series of tweets quoting McPhee, as he talked about the pre-draft trades he’s completed. The GM announced that there are at least six deals but that he’s lost track of exactly how many. He also said that the team would claim several extra defenders that he would need to trade after the expansion process is complete, and was surprised at how much scoring talent the team has been able to acquire. Even though he had set a deadline last night, several GMs had travel issues in getting to Vegas and McPhee is still talking with them. The Toronto Maple Leafs are one such team, reports Johnston.

The Lightning, Blue Jackets, Islanders, Ducks, and Blackhawks have all been heavily rumored to have deals in place with the Golden Knights, either to eat a bad contract or protect extra players from expansion. Other teams, like the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild have tried to get something done without much reported success though obviously that can change in a moment.

One of the most interesting parts of the week will be how many of the expansion selections will be traded immediately, as available players like James Neal have little use to the expansion franchise but could hold big trade value on the open market. Mathew Dumba, Sami Vatanen, Josh Manson, Jason Demers, Calvin de Haan and others are available on defense, and would command healthy returns if they were actually made available. McPhee made it clear that he’s willing to go that route, telling Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports that some expansion picks will be traded the very next day. The Golden Knights are in an incredible position of leverage as the minutes tick down. They must submit their expansion selections and any free agent contracts tomorrow morning, before everything is announced at the NHL Awards show tomorrow night.

It should prove to be one of the most interesting nights in recent hockey history, with transactions flying all around the league. Remember that there is a still a moratorium on any movement that doesn’t include the expansion team until early Thursday morning, meaning teams will have to wait and watch the expansion frenzy while sitting on their proverbial hands.