Golden Knights captain questionable to return for playoffs

Golden Knights captain Mark Stone is expected to miss the balance of the regular season and is questionable to return during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Thursday’s episode of “Insider Trading.” Stone has missed four games with an upper-body injury, which, per multiple reports, is a lacerated spleen.

Vegas placed the 31-year-old on standard injured reserve last week, meaning they aren’t receiving the potential long-term injured reserve relief provided by his $9.5M cap hit. That will change before the March 8 trade deadline, though, and they’ll be able to use that space as they please to make deadline acquisitions for the second straight season.

Unlike Stone, first-line center Jack Eichel and his $10M cap hit is on LTIR. However, as indicated by wearing a full-contact sweater in practice Thursday, Eichel will return to the lineup in the coming days.

The Golden Knights, who have also been using the LTIR relief provided by goaltender Robin Lehner’s $5M cap hit to stay compliant throughout the season, will likely place Stone on LTIR along with activating Eichel in corresponding transactions when the latter is ready to return. The latter has missed 18 games after undergoing knee surgery in January.

Lost in the cap space shuffle is the significance of Stone’s absence. No player that GM Kelly McCrimmon could acquire over the next week will be an upgrade on their captain, who remains in a very elite class of two-way wingers. He finishes his season with 16 goals, 37 assists, 53 points, and a +1 rating in 56 games.

That works out to 0.95 points per game, his highest rate since his 61-in-55 campaign in 2020-21, which placed him ninth in Hart Trophy voting and third in Selke Trophy voting. Serious long-term and, frankly, random injuries continue to plague the Winnipeg-born star, who’s played more than 60 games in a season just once since arriving in Nevada.

Stone’s absence will mean an extended opportunity for many down the stretch, namely 2020 first-round pick Brendan Brisson. While his production with AHL Henderson this season has been disappointing, he has a goal and four assists in 11 showings with Vegas. He was promoted to the top line alongside original Knights William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault for last night’s 5-4 loss against the Bruins.

It also means that McCrimmon can be more aggressive in pursuing help at the deadline than his division rival and likely first-round playoff opponent, the Oilers. Dreger said McCrimmon “will utilize [Stone’s] cap space” to add another top-six forward, much like their pickup of Ivan Barbashev from the Blues at last year’s deadline.

Vegas and Edmonton will be in the hunt for many of the same targets, which Dreger says could include the Blues’ Pavel Buchnevich, the Kraken’s Jordan Eberle, and, if extension talks fall through, the Devils’ Tyler Toffoli. A third Pacific Division team, the Kings, has also been linked to Toffoli.

After swapping Eichel and Stone on LTIR (and activating defenseman Tobias Björnfot, currently on an LTI conditioning loan to Henderson), the Golden Knights will have approximately $5.6M of cap space available. That’s nearly twice as much as the Oilers’ $2.4M projected deadline availability, which is already artificially high given their slim 21-player roster.

For Vegas’ purposes, Buchnevich would be the closest stylistic replacement for Stone. He would also carry a higher acquisition cost and likely a minimal amount of salary retention by the Blues, as, unlike Eberle and Toffoli, he’s signed through next season at a cap hit of $5.8M, slightly above the Golden Knights’ projected deadline availability.

Buchnevich, 28, leads the Blues in goals with 24 and is second on the team in scoring with 48 points in 57 games. He’s not producing at the point-per-game-plus pace we’ve seen from him over the past two years, but his possession impacts are the strongest of his eight-year career: an incredible 11% relative Corsi share at even strength to pair with a strong +6.9 expected rating. He wouldn’t replace the massive hole Stone’s leadership leaves in the chemistry of Vegas’ forward group, but his on-ice results go a long way toward softening the blow.