Stone Skates With Golden Knights, Return Still Unclear

Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone, wearing a red non-contact jersey, skated with his team this morning for the first time since suffering a lacerated spleen on a hit by Nashville’s Yakov Trenin on Feb. 20.

“That means he’s progressing,” Cassidy said. “…what his return to play would be I’m not sure what’s left on that.”

The Golden Knights were 32-18-6 when Stone was injured and are 10-10-2 since then. Stone is a hard-nosed forward who can control play along the boards and lead the offensive charge.

The defending Stanley  Cup champion Golden Knights have not qualified for this season’s playoffs. But that will happen tonight if the Golden Knights beat the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues lose in regulation to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Vegas has four games remaining in the regular season, but Stone isn’t expected to return before the postseason.  He’s currently on the team’s Long Term Injured Reserve and they wouldn’t have the cap space to activate him if he were ready now.  He makes $9.5 million, and the team only has $764,000 in cap space (according to capfriendly.com).   But salary cap is not a factor in the postseason.

At the time of the injury, the Golden Knights said Stone would be gone at least through the end of the regular season and possibly into the playoffs. A lacerated spleen is not a common enough hockey injury to have a specific timeline. Doctors let the injury heal on its own and then monitor the progress through CT scans.

Return Date Unspecified

Today is the 52nd day since the injury. “Obviously, he has to get clearance for his injury and see how it plays out down the road,” Cassidy said. ” It’s nice to have him back out, to see him with the group.”

Stone has been with Vegas since 2018-19, and has a history of injuries. “It has been a few years in a row  he has had to sit part of that out,” Cassidy said. “It can be tough for a guy mentally. It’s great for him to be back. He’s the captain — the leader of our team. To be around his teammates is s terrific for everybody.”

This injury caused added concern because it’s not the type of injuries that hockey players usually suffer.

“There is doubt with that type of injury,” Cassidy said. “You don’t know when he’s coming back. There are scans and all of these things that he has to go through for an internal issue.  You just don’t know what’s going on there. I’m not sure he did inside to be honest.”

Last season, Stone missed the final 39 games of the regular-season (back injury) before returning in the postseason to help Vegas win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.