Mark Stone: 2022 Bounce back Year Guaranteed?
The Golden Knights open up their season tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. Last year for Vegas it was sort of a year from hell. Everybody was injured and nobody even had time to get adjusted to the Jack Eichel trade midway through the season. The most notable name who spent time on that LTIR list this past year for the VGK was captain Mark Stone who dealt with serious back issues.
After failing to make the postseason for the first time in franchise history, Stone and the rest of the group feels motivated to get back to the dance. In a recent article by the wonderful Elliotte Friedman, he spoke to Mark Stone about how he’s feeling coming back from back surgery. With lowered expectations, he’s ready to prove the haters wrong.
“Nothing to do with disc health. People can say what they want, I know I’m going to be healthy.”
Stone on the Knights: “I know people are low on us. We don’t really care. Hate us, that’s fine. We feel we have a good team.”
If Stone still has gas in the tank, he’s a major value in fantasy hockey right now. Stone, 30, is ranked 81st overall by the ESPN rankers. That’s one spot higher than Michael Bunting who simply has value because he’s in Toronto with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. If we can get the guy back from 2020-21 when he carried a shooting percentage of 21.4, you can lock it in that he finishes much higher than that fantasy wise. With Bruce Cassidy, a clean bill of health, and Jack Eichel in town, comeback player of the year should very much be on the table here.
Prove the haters wrong, Stone. Prove you have game-changing talent still in the tank. It starts with tonight.
