Golden Knights get winger Mark Stone in trade

By Justin Emerson

Published Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 | 11:53 a.m.

Updated Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 | 5:10 p.m.

The Golden Knights proved today they weren’t going to wait around and hope for the team to will itself back to the Stanley Cup Final. They went out and made the biggest trade of the day ahead of the noon deadline.

The Golden Knights acquired Ottawa star winger Mark Stone minutes before the deadline in exchange for defensive prospect Erik Brannstrom, forward Oscar Lindberg and a 2020 second-round pick.

Stone told TSN he has agreed to an eight-year extension with the Golden Knights, with an average annual value of about $9 million.

The deal cannot be made official until Friday, and general manager George McPhee said the trade was contingent on getting an extension done.

“This type of player doesn’t come available very often,” McPhee said. “We are delighted to acquire him. We believe he is one of the best all-around players in the NHL and helps to make our team better.

”We would not have done a rental — too much risk in that."

Stone has 62 points in 59 games, immediately becoming the Golden Knights’ leader in goals (28), points and assists (34). He figures to immediately slot onto Vegas’ top line and play on the power play and penalty kill once he gets acclimated.

“When you get superstar players on your team, you have to give up a lot,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “He’s the top guy on the board, and we got him.”

Stone is expected to arrive in Las Vegas on Tuesday, practice with the team and be available to media following morning skate.

Stone joins forwards Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny as established stars to join the Golden Knights this season. Pacioretty said he knows Stone well from his own days in Montreal and is thrilled to have him as a teammate.

“It’s obvious our goal is to win immediately, and this proves that,” Pacioretty said. “He and I were always going at each other often, so it will be a fun first conversation.”

Lindberg is in the last year of his contract, and Brannstrom has yet to make his NHL debut.

Lindberg was one of the last players on the ice after practice when the news broke, and his teammates saw the reports on TV he had been traded. William Karlsson broke the news to him.

“He asked if something happened and I said, ‘Yeah, you’ve been traded pretty much.’ He didn’t believe me at first, but after awhile, when more people came up to him and said their goodbyes, I guess he started to realize it was true,” Karlsson said. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone had to tell him. It’s tough.”

The Golden Knights had three second-round picks in 2020 and traded the pick that originally belonged to the Dallas Stars. In the next two years, they have both their first-round picks, three second-round picks and four third-round picks.

McPhee said it was not easy giving up Brannstrom, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2017 draft, but that the team’s prospect depth, particularly 20-year-old Nicolas Hague, on the blue line made it more palatable.

“We have a lot of good, young defensemen and we like our group here, so it was an area we could dip into to make this sort of transaction happen,” he said. “It certainly makes doing something like this a lot easier when you know you have other good young players coming up.”

Vegas also acquired winger Tobias Lindberg in the deal, who they traded at last year's deadline in the Ryan Reaves deal.