Newcastle coach Nathan Brown says he hasn't spoken to star playmaker Jarrod Mullen about moving on from the NRL club as part of a salary cap clean-out at season's end.
News Corp Australia reported on Sunday that Mullen, who has a $2.2 million deal until 2018, would become the victim of a complete rebuild at the Knights, which is also set to include injured duo Kade Snowden and James McManus, and out-of-favour winger Aku Uate.
Brown reiterated the club was vulnerable to other team's advances given their financial position and said a number of senior players were on notice about their future at the club.
But he denied having a conversation with Mullen, a fan favourite in Newcastle, about moving on at the end of the season.
"I haven't spoke to him," Brown said.
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"We've got a number of players whose agents have been spoken to and players themselves know where they stand.
"We're vulnerable at the moment.
"We've got players that if someone came and said (we want) player X, who you wouldn't want to let go, you might have to look at it because of the value they take up of your cap.
"We're probably where Penrith was six years ago when (Phil Gould) took over."
Mullen, who was 18 when he made his NRL debut with the Knights in 2005, signed a four-year deal in 2014, saying he wanted to be a one-club player and emulate Andrew Johns as the player who the next generation of Knights wanted to play with.
