Revisiting the Mark Stone Trade From Ottawa to Vegas

With 8 points in 5 games, former Senator Mark Stone helped eliminate his hometown Winnipeg Jets in round one of the playoffs. How does the trade look four years later?

It's been over four years since the Ottawa Senators traded away Mark Stone and, since the trade, Stone has played in 51 playoff games, posting 45 points for the Vegas Golden Knights. Meanwhile, Ottawa not been to a single playoff game since 2017 when Stone and the Senators got to within one goal of the Cup Final.

As Vegas eliminated Winnipeg in Game 5 Thursday night, Stone had 3 points in the clinching game and finished with 8 points in the series. Of course, when a former Senator does something impressive with his new team, it’s standard operating procedure to immediately review whether the Senators should have hung on to that player or not. It might actually be a City of Ottawa by-law.

But as we look back at the Stone trade, it's hard to moan about a breakup when it’s highly doubtful either side truly wanted to stay together. 

On the day of the Stone deal, Senators’ general manager Pierre Dorion told the media that contract talks had been ongoing. Dorion said they only realized on the Friday before the trade that Stone probably wasn’t going to re-sign in Ottawa. Meanwhile, on the very same day, on the other side of town, owner Eugene Melnyk told CBC Ottawa something quite different when asked directly about the departure of Stone.

"It's part of our rebuild. We've been planning this for some time," Melnyk said.

As for Stone's interest level, he was on a bad team that was signalling loudly it would be bad for a while. Stone had watched the club move out players that season like Erik Karlsson, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. It was demolition day for the Sens with a long rebuild about to begin. That was probably more than enough to convince Stone not to re-sign.

Stone would have offered an excellent veteran presence in the young Sens locker room. Brady Tkachuk lived with Stone at the time and his father, Keith, publicly pleaded with the Senators to re-sign Stone.

“I want that Mark Stone signed so badly," Keith Tkachuk told TSN 1200 radio. "He’s been so instrumental to Brady’s development both on and off the ice. The Senators have to figure out a way and get this done.”

While everyone loved Stone in Ottawa, it’s also fair to ask whether it was wise for Vegas to sign Stone to an 8 year deal worth $9.5 million. The Knights would definitely tell you they're thrilled with the deal, but Stone also had back surgery this season, his second back surgery in nine months. And he’s only played 80 games in the past two years. Let’s see how things pan out over the next four years of this contract.

Most Sens fans have long moved on from the deal and the only thing reasonably worth second-guessing anymore is what the Sens have to show from the trade. The Sens got defenceman Erik Brannstrom and a pick that would become Egor Sokolov. Neither one seems to be on track to make the compensation suddenly look adequate. But who knows? Both players are still very young.

Brannstrom showed major signs of improvement this season, Sokolov led Belleville in scoring, and stranger things have happened.

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