LAS VEGAS — Call it the calm before the (desert) storm.

While most of the NHL was busy Friday on the first day of the 2025 Entry Draft, the Vegas Golden Knights were spectators. The Knights, who had traded their first-round pick to San Jose as part of the Tomas Hertl deal a couple of years ago, are preparing for the real activity — the start of free agency next Tuesday.

Yes, they’ll have some work to do on Day Two Saturday as the Knights have picks in rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5 and two picks in round 6. But everyone is focused on Tuesday. Or at least they should be.

General Manager Kelly McCrimmon has been trying to figure out how he can sign UFA Mitch Marner and fit the 28-year-old winger in Vegas’ salary cap. If he can pull it off, which is still a big “if” at this point, the Knights would have as good a 1-2 punch as any team in the NHL with Marner and Jack Eichel.

It’s likely to cost north of $12 million to get Marner to come to Vegas after he made $11 million in Toronto. Yes, I know his salary will go considerably farther living in Nevada compared to Canada but he’s not taking a haircut to play for the Knights.

So how does GMKM clear room for Marner?

We’ve been hearing about defenseman Alex Pietrangelo spending the upcoming season on LTIR, which would allow the Knights to apply his $8.8 million salary to the cap. Pietraneglo, 35, has battled injuries the last couple of seasons and this past year it was obvious he was dealing with some health issues. Whether he’s willing to take a year off and reboot for what would be his walk year in 2026-27, we’ll have to see. But even if he agrees to sit out, the Knights still need to clear more room under the cap to sign Marner. Why? Because they have other players they need to sign to fill out their roster.

We’ve heard the speculation regarding trading Hertl, moving Ivan Barbashev, unloading William Karlsson. One of those scenarios could still happen and if it does, McCrimmon likely gets to the magic number to bring Marner to Vegas. But if he’s unable to do so, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get Marner. And iff Pietrangelo decides he’s going to play and not sit out, well, that would likely make the Knights non-players in the Marner sweepstakes.

The Knights haven’t been completely quiet this week leading up to the draft. They signed veteran forwards Reilly Smith and Brandon Saad to one-year, $2 million deals which were extremely team-friendly. Whether they do likewise with pending UFA Victor Olofsson we’ll have to see. Ditto with forward Tanner Pearson and goaltender Ilya Samsonov. And whether they can come to terms with RFA defenseman Nicolas Hague is another scenario we’ll have to monitor.

But they have Kaedan Korczak ready to step in and play full-time NHL minutes on the blueline so if Pietrangelo and/or Hague are not on the opening night roster in early October, Korczak will get his shot. Ben Hutton also is part of the plan going forward and whether he’s the sixth or seventh D-man, he’s someone they’d like to find room for.

They may let Olofsson, Samsonov and Pearson hit the open market and save a little over $3 million from what they paid the trio last season. They also have RFAs Jonas Rondbjerg, Cole Schwindt and Alexander Holtz to deal with. If they were to pass on the RFA trio, the savings still won’t get them to where they need to be to sign Marner. It’s likely going to take moving one of the bigger contracts — Hertl ($6.75 million), Karlsson ($5.9 million) or Barbashev ($5 million). All three have various no-move clauses in their contracts so it’s not as easy to get a deal done.

Still, I wouldn’t bet against McCrimmon. He’s not afraid to swing for the fences and he’s got some very smart people working for him that understand the cap and what it takes to be compliant. The Knights are always about the present, not the future. They’re in win-now mode. So if Marner really wants to be a Golden Knight and if GMKM really wants him in a gold sweater, they’ll find a way. It may not happen on Tuesday per se as sometimes swinging a maneuver like this can get complicated giving the moving parts and timing.

But if both sides exercise some patience and there’s trust of each other, perhaps the most sought-after UFA will find his way to T-Mobile Arena.