Hope rekindled: What Mark Stone brings to the Golden Knights

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019 | 2 a.m.

The Golden Knights traded for Mark Stone on Monday, altering the present and future of the team.

Stone, the former Ottawa Senators star forward, is one of the best all-around players in the league and certainly the biggest name to change teams at the trade deadline. He has 28 goals and 34 assists for 62 points in 59 games, all tops on his new team.

He then agreed to an eight-year extension worth a reported $9.5 million annually, making him the foundation for the Golden Knights now and going forward.

“Stone is the here, the now, the future,” general manager George McPhee said. “He is the type of player you always look for and hope to be able to land.”

Dominant presence on the ice

Stone immediately becomes the Golden Knights’ most productive skater. He is on pace for 82 points this season, more than the 78 points that William Karlsson had to lead last year’s team.

Stone also brings a consistency that Karlsson and fellow top scorer Jonathan Marchessault have yet to show. Since Stone became a regular in the 2014-15 season, he has not failed to record a 62-point pace over 82 games.

He joins forwards Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny as established, star players on this year’s team, which is something that even McPhee did not see coming when the inaugural team was put together.

“Players this good aren’t available through trade very often,” McPhee said. “Usually you draft a player like this and hang onto him and he plays his whole career with you.”

Coach Gerard Gallant said Stone will figure into the power play, which is not a surprise, but also the penalty kill. He had 17 points on the power play this year with the Senators and even chipped in a short-handed tally.

Stone also plays defense as well as anyone in the league. Wingers rarely win the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward, but Stone came in third in the Professional Hockey Writers Association’s midseason voting. On a Senators team with a minus-610 Corsi, worst in the league by almost 200 shot attempts, Ottawa is plus-85 when Stone is on the ice.

Where he will play remains to be seen. He figures to play on the top six, and he could slide in next to Karlsson and Marchessault on the top line, could play on a veteran-heavy line with Stastny and Pacioretty, or could even help boost other players’ productions, like Cody Eakin and Brandon Pirri.

McPhee said Gallant has the final call, and Stone is expected to practice this morning ahead of tonight’s game with the Dallas Stars.

“We’re going to trot him on a line and see where it goes,” Gallant said. “He’s a good player, he’ll figure it out.”

All about the money

Stone told TSN he agreed to a contract extension, one that is expected to be for eight years with an average annual value of $9 million to $9.5 million, although it cannot be signed until Friday. His current cap hit of $7.35 million makes him the highest-paid player on the team, but that will skyrocket next year. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and forward Max Pacioretty will both carry a cap hit of $7 million next season, next-highest on the team after Stone.

The good news is Vegas does not have many unrestricted free agents who will need new contracts. Only Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Pirri, Deryk Engelland and Ryan Carpenter are eligible for free agency.

The problem is the restricted free agents, especially one in particular. Malcolm Subban and Tomas Nosek will need new deals, but so will Karlsson. And trying to find out how to pay Karlsson will be tricky.

Karlsson’s rise to prominence is virtually unprecedented: No player has risen from being an afterthought to a 43-goal scorer at his age quite like he did. If he was going to score 43 goals again, perhaps that’s how to value him. But he is on pace for just 23 goals and 51 points this year, and the Golden Knights could be hesitant to dish out superstar money.

The Golden Knights currently project to have about $10 million in cap space next season if the cap rises to $83 million, as expected. Stone could eat up $9.5 million, but they will recoup $5.25 million once David Clarkson’s contract is placed on long-term injured reserve.

Taking only the players under contract for next season, the Golden Knights project to have $5.375 million in space with 19 players on the roster. If they fill three of those spots with league-minimum players, they have just $3.275 to spend on Karlsson. Considering he makes $5.25 million against the cap this season, that won’t get it done.

“This doesn’t affect us at all,” McPhee said. “We’ll have flexibility to do things. I’m not interested in being hamstrung on anything, and we won’t be."

So what can the Golden Knights do?

They can trade Karlsson, relying on Stastny, Eakin, Erik Haula and Cody Glass as the four forwards. They could get future picks for Karlsson, and kick the salary cap issues down the road.

More likely though, they will find a way to work him into the cap by getting creative. Eakin and defenseman Colin Miller each make about $3.87 million against the cap next season, and trading either could free up the requisite space for Karlsson, whether it be on a one-year deal to take him to unrestricted free agency or a long-term pact.

No matter how you slice it, Stone’s acquisition has made the Golden Knights a team with a cap crunch fewer than two years into its existence.

“We’ll be able to do other things going forward as necessary,” McPhee said.

Keeping up with the big dogs

Looking outside the team, it makes the race for the Pacific Division crown that much more important for the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames. The Golden Knights are unlikely to catch either and look poised to finish third, giving them a first-round match-up with whichever team finishes second.

Neither will want a date with Vegas in the first round. The winner gets a wild card team, and if the playoffs started today, that would be the Minnesota Wild. Calgary is in first place, and would much rather play Minnesota and let San Jose and Vegas beat up on each other ahead of a potential second-round showdown.

It also helps Vegas keep pace with the other Western Conference heavyweights. The Golden Knights are a combined 1-4 against Nashville and Winnipeg this year, and each made a deadline deal of its own. Nashville got Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers and Winnipeg got Kevin Hayes from the Rangers.

Both are big-bodied forwards, and the 6-foot-4-inch, 219-pound Stone will help the Golden Knights match the physicality on the ice. Among Vegas’ top six, only Alex Tuch has the size Stone has.

It also proves to the players in the room that Vegas is ready to do what it takes to keep pace with the league's elite.

"That's definitely the message and hopefully this addition will wake us up a little," Karlsson said. "He's a really talented and good player. He's going to be very important for us and hopefully help us win a lot of games in the future."

Of course getting a player like Stone costs quite a bit. The Golden Knights gave up touted prospect Erik Brannstrom, a second-round pick next year and forward Oscar Lindberg. McPhee said he wasn’t alone in making the trade, as his staff and owner Bill Foley were in the loop on the deal.

He also said he can’t allow himself to look at what’s gone, but only look at the player the team now has.

“We get to a place and move forward,” McPhee said. “We make a decision, then we take the rear-view mirror out of the car and keep going. You don’t look back.”

Vegas also acquired winger Tobias Lindberg in the deal, who they traded at last year's deadline in the Ryan Reaves deal.