Former Senator Mark Stone was injured on Sunday in curious circumstances.
The Vegas Golden Knights captain was skating through the neutral zone against the Pittsburgh Penguins and took the lightest of cross-checks from defenseman Kris Letang. Stone immediately skated off in pain, left the game and did not return.
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“I barely touched him,” Letang told rinkside analyst Darren Pang right after the play.
In fact, it was barely a standard cross check, almost more of cross check shove. Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy, the former Ottawa 67s great, wasn’t sure about Stone’s status after the game.
“I assume he’ll be on the plane with us to Buffalo and then probably have a better update (on Monday),” Cassidy told the media. “Upper body is all I was told and we’ll see where it lands.”
When asked about the impact of losing Stone in the game, Cassidy had a thoughtful reply. He said the club has been used to pushing through with players out of the lineup this season, but because of his past, an injury to Stone lands a little differently.
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“I just think it’s the timing of it, maybe. Mark’s had some injuries before, so guys are concerned for him, rightfully so. So I think that would be the biggest effect (on the team today), you know, is he OK? Or did he re injure something he has in the past? I think everybody’s kind of worried about that. So that probably plays in your mind a little bit. But we’re certainly not going to use that as an excuse for how we played. We just weren’t good enough.”
It added injury to the insult of a 5-0 Sunday loss for the Knights.
Meanwhile, seeing Stone injured while taking such light contact on the week of the NHL trade deadline is sure to raise eyebrows with some of the more suspicious fans around the league.
While Stone has had injuries in the past, it’s also true that seeing him on the injury list before the deadline, which hasn’t happened yet in this case, has happened more than once before.
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The silver lining in Stone (or anyone else) going on LTIR was the creation of cap space so that the Knights could make trades at the deadline. Then, when the playoffs arrived and there is no cap, the Knights were often fortunate that Stone was ready to rejoin the bolstered roster.
That led to complaints of cap circumvention, and whether the Knights were truly doing that or not, it cannot be argued they were playing by the NHL’s rules.
But no one can make that claim with Stone’s latest injury. The loophole is now closed.
“Playoff Cap Counting” was announced back in September as an add-on to the new CBA which officially begins next season. The 2026 trade deadline is set for this Friday at 3 pm.
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Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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