Golden Knights trade defenseman Colin Miller to Buffalo

The long-rumored trade of Golden Knights defenseman Colin Miller, which finally happened Friday, is all about space.

Sure, there’s the obvious salary-cap space that was cleared with the deal to Buffalo.

But it also creates space on the blue line for the upcoming season.

The Knights sent Miller to the Sabres for a second-round pick that originally belonged to St. Louis in 2021 and a fifth-round pick in 2022, paving the way for at least one top prospect to make the team out of training camp.

Incoming president of hockey operations George McPhee is scheduled to address the trade Saturday.

With Miller’s $3.875 million salary cap off the books, the Knights now sit approximately $900,000 over the $81.5 million upper limit with 13 forwards, five defensemen and one goaltender on the NHL roster.

That includes minor league forward Curtis McKenzie ($750,000) and David Clarkson, who hasn’t played since 2016.

The Knights can exceed the salary cap by up to $5.25 million when Clarkson is placed on injured reserve, meaning McPhee and incoming general manager Kelly McCrimmon have about $5 million of cap space to sign restricted free agents Nikita Gusev, Tomas Nosek, Jimmy Schuldt and Malcolm Subban.

McPhee told reporters Wednesday the Knights are close on a deal with Nosek, and Gusev’s annual average salary is expected to be between $3 million and $4 million if the team decides to sign the Russian import rather than trade his rights.

With limited funds available, unrestricted free-agent forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ryan Carpenter and Brandon Pirri appear unlikely to re-sign.

The Knights do not have a right-hand shot among their defensemen now that Miller is in Buffalo, which could signal the return of unrestricted free agent Deryk Engelland.

Engelland had a $1.5 million cap hit last season, and the 37-year-old Las Vegas resident made another $1 million in performance bonuses, according to the website CapFriendly.

Should Engelland return as the Knights’ website indicated would happen, that leaves rookies Jake Bischoff, Dylan Coghlan, Nicolas Hague, Schuldt and Zach Whitecloud to compete for at least one roster spot in training camp.

Coghlan and Whitecloud are right-hand shots, though another move could be in the works to open room for a left defenseman.

The trade is the second in three days by the Knights, who sent Erik Haula to Carolina on Wednesday for center Nicolas Roy and a conditional 2021 fifth-round pick.

With the haul from the Sabres, the Knights have six picks in the first two rounds of the next two NHL drafts.

Miller signed a four-year, $15.5 million contract as a restricted free agent last summer after he led the team’s defensemen with a career-high 10 goals and 41 points.

But he finished with three goals and 26 assists in 65 games last season, as his shot percentage dipped to 2.3 percent from his career average of 5.9 percent.

Miller didn’t appear comfortable in a top-four role when Nate Schmidt was suspended for the first 20 games and fell out of favor with Knights coach Gerard Gallant during the second half of the season.

The 26-year-old was a healthy scratch for two straight games in February after he was on the ice for all three goals in a loss at Colorado and two additional games in March. He also sat out Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals while in Gallant’s doghouse.

“I think (my season) had ups and downs, just like our team did,” Miller said during his exit interview with the media in April. “I think with our quick turnaround last year, it was definitely a little harder to get ready for the season. I guess in one sense it’s good to have a little bit more time to get ready for next season.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.