Mark Stone is still the kind of player the Vegas Golden Knights build around, and last season made that point pretty loud. Even with the Captain missing time, Vegas went 8-9-5 without him, a stretch that helped explain why the club fell short of the best record in franchise history despite winning the Pacific Division.
The challenge for 2026-27 is obvious: the Golden Knights are going to need more offense from a different-looking cast. Pavel Dorofeyev is gone, taking with him 20 power play goals, a single-season franchise record. Colton Sissons and Keegan Kolesar are also no longer in town, which leaves more of the burden on cheaper talent to help carry the load.
That’s where Stone comes back into focus. The Canadian Olympian still produced at a high level last season, putting up 73 points in 60 games with 28 goals and 45 assists. That came out to 1.22 points per game, a career best and a clear jump from his previous high of 1.11 in 2020-21.
The problem, as always, is availability. There’s a real chance Stone doesn’t play all 84 games this season. His history of spleen injuries and the lumbar discectomy he had to address back issues make a full workload hard to picture, especially with two more games now on the schedule.
Still, when Stone gets rolling, he tends to stay hot for a while. Last January was a good example, when he posted 10 goals and 12 assists. He has had the occasional rough patch too, including a March in which he managed only two goals and three assists while dealing with injury.
The numbers say plenty about the connection between games played and production. Here’s how Stone’s points per game have tracked over the years:
2018-19: 0.95 in 18 games
2019-20: 0.97 in 65 games
2020-21: 1.11 in 55 games
2021-22: 0.81 in 37 games
2022-23: 0.88 in 43 games
2023-24: 0.95 in 56 games
2024-25: 1.02 in 66 games
2025-26: 1.22 in 60 games
That trend points to a simple truth: when Stone is on the ice more often, the offense follows. If he slips below 50 games in 2026-27, the production should dip with it. If he stays healthier than expected, those totals can climb fast.
So the projection lands at 61 games, 24 goals and 45 assists for Stone this season. That’s still a big piece of offense for Vegas, and if he pushes beyond that, it would go a long way toward helping the Golden Knights navigate a season where the lineup looks different and the margin for error feels tighter.
In Other News...
Golden Knights Coaching History Makes This Hire Feel Bigger
The Golden Knights have never treated the coaching chair like a place for long-term patience, and Ryan Craig is stepping into a job that carries plenty of that history with it. Vegas moved on from interim head coach John Tortorella after 30 games, the shortest stint in franchise history, and turned to a familiar face in Craig, who previously worked as an assistant on the staff and now gets his first shot at running the bench.
It is a position shaped by the expectations created under Gerard Gallant, Peter DeBoer and Bruce Cassidy, all of whom brought different results but also reinforced how quickly the standard in Vegas can shift. Craig inherits a team that has seen coaching changes tied directly to playoff pressure and regular-season urgency, which makes this hire feel less like a routine promotion and more like the latest test of how much stability the Golden Knights can actually find behind the bench. [Read more 🡒]
Jack Eichel Is Chasing A Golden Knights Milestone That Has Never Happened
Jack Eichel has already put together back-to-back 90-point seasons for the Golden Knights, a stretch that has underlined how central he has become to everything Vegas does offensively. With a 1.22 points-per-game rate, he has been producing at a level that keeps the possibility of something even bigger in view, especially if he stays healthy and gets a full seasons worth of games.
That is where the intrigue comes in for a franchise that has never had a player reach 100 points in a season. Eichel is the one with the clearest path to changing that, and while Mitch Marner already cleared that threshold elsewhere, the Golden Knights are still waiting for their own first entry into that club. The conversation now is less about whether Eichel has become an elite scorer in Vegas and more about whether he can finally push the team into uncharted territory. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Have 3 Prospects Facing A Huge Weekend
The Rookie Faceoff arrives this weekend in Vegas, and it gives the Golden Knights a useful early look at a few prospects who are trying to turn promise into a real path upward. Bronson Ride, Mathieu Cataford and Trent Swick are among the names to watch, with each player carrying a different blend of recent performance, size and upside as the organization starts sorting out who might be ready for bigger minutes in Henderson.
For all three, the stakes go beyond a good showing in a prospect tournament. A strong weekend can help strengthen their case for a role with the Henderson Silver Knights, which is often the next proving ground before NHL consideration becomes realistic. The Golden Knights do not need every young player to arrive at once, but they do need a few to start separating themselves, and this event is one of the first chances to do it. [Read more 🡒]