Daily Faceoff Live: Golden Knights’ Mark Stone dealing with another back issue

Daily Faceoff hockey analysts Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna discussed the status of Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone on Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

Stone, 30, has 17 goals and 38 points in 43 games this year, but he made an early exit from the Golden Knights’ 4–2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Jan. 12 and has not played since.

According to Seravalli, there’s growing concern Stone might be dealing with a similar back injury to the one that limited him to just 37 games last season.

Here’s the full exchange on Stone between McKenna and Seravalli on Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live:

Mike McKenna: Alec Martinez left Monday’s game, he did not return. They’re also missing Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud, who are on IR. Brett Howden’s out. But what’s going on with Mark Stone? He’s been out of the lineup for a little bit, do you have any update on him?

Frank Seravalli: I forgot my stethoscope today, Mike, but Dr. Seravalli does have office hours today. Yes, Mark Stone, I can say with confidence, is dealing with another back issue, and that has to be scary news for the Vegas Golden Knights and their fans considering what he went through last year with his back injury and the subsequent procedure that he underwent to try and fix things up. I think the only fluid part of the situation, Mike, for the Vegas Golden Knights is: what exactly is the severity of this back injury? They’re still trying to figure that out.

Obviously not a secret that Stone is going to be missing some time. Bruce Cassidy, their coach, was saying that he is week-to-week, so that is certainly not day-to-day or anything like that. And where it really begins to get interesting, Mike, is: what happens if Mark Stone is going to potentially be out for the rest of the season? I’m not reporting that or saying that is fact or may happen, but I think if you’re looking at the Vegas Golden Knights, who have always been super aggressive when it comes to trying to improve their team, if, all of a sudden, they have $9+ million dollars in LTIR space to play with, then look out — because they will be one of the prime teams to watch leading up to the NHL’s March 3 trade deadline.

You can catch the full episode here …