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Golden Knights waive struggling Jason Garrison

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during the first period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on October 7, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona.

Christian Petersen

The Vegas Golden Knights’ roster activity continued on Friday as they waived Jason Garrison, who carries the highest cap hit ($4.6 million) among Golden Knights defensmen, per Cap Friendly. The move allowed them to activate Erik Haula from injured reserve.

This move also follows the most recent demotion of Vadim Shipachyov, who could end up involved in a trade out of Sin City.

Garrison’s been in quite a decline since 2014-15, his first season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s stayed pretty healthy, but his production has dropped from 30 points in ’14-15 to 11, 9 and down to one this season. He’s only suited up for four games after being one of Vegas’ expansion draft picks and averaged 18:53 of ice time per night.

His booming shot could help a power play and given he’s in the final year of his deal, that would make him an attractive pickup for another club (along with his $2.5 million salary), as opposed to Shipachyov, who’s on a two-year deal.

Vegas has an abundance of blue liners in their organization, but it’s clear general manager George McPhee was unable to flip one of this defensive assets hence Friday’s moves. One quote he gave on Thursday referring to Shipachyov’s status could apply to Garrison, 32, in this case.

Via Sin Bin Vegas: “Unfortunately, we have a lot of players here, and we have certain people that have really blossomed and are playing extremely well right now, and they deserve to be in the lineup.”

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.