Specifically, GMs worry that Vegas could take advantage of the 48-hour window before the expansion draft in June to quietly agree to terms on a deal with a pending unrestricted free agent, then wait until July 1 to sign him, so as to pluck another player off a team's roster in the expansion draft.
This would circumvent the rule that if a team loses a free agent to Vegas in that 48-hour free-agent-signing window, it cannot lose another player in the expansion draft. Some GMs worry that veteran GM George McPhee, who wasn't born yesterday, would take advantage of the situation.
Conversely?
"George has the same concerns about existing teams doing those types of deals with players they don't have to protect," deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Tuesday after the GMs meeting.
McPhee wisely worries that a team or two might do a "drawer deal'' with a pending UFA but not officially sign it until after the expansion draft. Why? Teams don't have to protect pending free agents because they aren't eligible for the expansion draft. Here's an example: If the
San Jose Sharksdidn't officially re-sign
Joe Thornton until after the expansion draft, they could protect another player.
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Daly said
violators of the expansion rules forgo a first-round draft pick, so penalties in the same vein would be "appropriate."? New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero insisted anyone would be crazy to attempt that type of circumvention.