The Vegas Golden Knights remain undefeated in regulation play, sitting at 4-0-2. This makes the Golden Knights one of the top teams in the NHL. Still, they will once again be without their captain, as Mark Stone is considered week-to-week, and will not embark on the road trip with the team.
“It’s an unfortunate loss. It’ll be a loss in every area. He touches the penalty kill, and obviously down low on the power play,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy about the Stone injury.
Stone fell akwardly in the third period of the game with the Calgary Flames on Saturday, injuring his wrist. He had already registed two goals and two assists in the game, which included getting the helper on Mitch Marner's second goal with the team, and a third period powerplay goal. Still, the injury took him out of the last 14 minutes of action against the Flames. The Golden Knights did go on to win the game 6-1.
Stone was off to an amazng start to the season. He has already found the back of the net twice while adding 11 assists. His 13 points placed him second in the NHL behind his teammate Jack Eichel. Further, he was a major part of the powerplay unit, with a goal and seven assists on the man-advantage.
“It’s an unfortunate loss,” Cassidy told the media on Monday. “It’ll be a loss in every area. He touches the penalty kill, and obviously down low on the power play.”
This is not the first time the captain has had to miss games. Since joining the Golden Knights, he missed plenty of games. He missed six games for a lower-body injury in 2019-2020. He only missed one game in 2020-21. Still, he missed 44 games in 2021-22 to various reasons, including a back injury Stone played just 43 games out of 82 the next season, and then just 56 in 2023-24. Finally, in 2024-25 he played in just 66 games with the franchise.
Stone has never played all 82 games in a season, with the 2014-15 season of 80 games being his career high. His least amount of missed games is still the 2020-21 campaign.
Stone will not only miss Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes at home, but also is going to miss the road trip. The road trip is three games, visiting the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lighting, and Hurricanes. It also makes his earliest possible return on Halloween Night agaisnt the Colorado Avalanche at home.
