Golden Knights lineup uncertain for season opener

Who’s playing with whom?

That’s the biggest question facing the Golden Knights.

With Friday’s franchise opener at the Dallas Stars looming, there remains a considerable amount of uncertainty throughout coach Gerard Gallant’s roster. Much of it is because Gallant still doesn’t know who will be available when he fills out his lineup card at American Airlines Center.

In the wake of Tuesday’s moves that saw Vadim Shipachyov, Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore assigned to the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Chicago, the roster remains a work in progress. Especially since Shipachyov is expected to be in the lineup Friday. Maybe Tuch and/or Theodore as well. Or perhaps James Neal is taken off injured reserve and plays.

“There’s nothing settled right now,” Gallant said after Wednesday’s practice at City National Arena. “As you know, management is trying to do some things with the roster, so we’ll see how it goes and we’ll adjust.”

General manager George McPhee explained his moves, which included bringing in Malcolm Subban as the team’s third goaltender and signing center Brandon Pirri and assigning him to the Wolves.

“We assigned Shipachyov, Tuch and Theodore to Chicago because we could,” said McPhee, citing their waiver-exempt status. “We’re still two days away from our first game, so we have a little more time to assess things and make adjustments to our roster.”

At Wednesday’s practice, Oscar Lindberg was on the ice working with Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, and Neal was skating with Cody Eakin and David Perron. William Karlsson, who has been playing with Eakin and Perron, was with Erik Haula and Brendan Leipsic.

“We’ll probably be jumping around a little bit at the start,” Lindberg said. “I’m not worried about it. I just try to play my game and bring my skill to whatever line I’m playing with.”

McPhee said there was a possibility Neal could be in the lineup Friday. Neal, recovering from offseason surgery on his broken right hand, was optimistic.

“When I had surgery (in late July) and went through the process of getting better, my goal was always to play the first game, so I’m still working to that,” Neal said.

“It’s been nice to be able to practice the last few days with the team and get reps in and get your game legs back a little bit, feel the puck. I hadn’t really done much, so I feel good and continue to get better each day.”

The defensive pairings are more muddled than the forward pairings. Luca Sbisa has played with just about everyone in training camp, and the veteran defenseman said there will be an adjustment period.

“Finding tendencies and little things that a guy does has been a challenge,” Sbisa said. “We’ve only been together, what, three weeks? As we go on, there’ll be a little more structure, I’m sure. But right now, you probably want to keep it simple and just communicate with the guy next to you.”

McPhee said things probably will change in the next 24 hours. Returning Shipachyov to the lineup won’t be the only move.

“We’ll see how things go,” McPhee said. “We could make one trade. We could make three.”

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Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.