Vegas Golden Knights: Mark Stone runner-up in Selke voting, other notes

Mark Stone didn’t win the hardware after finishing second in voting for the Selke Trophy, but it was still a proud night for the Vegas Golden Knights forward.

Stone was the lone representative for the Vegas Golden Knights at the 2019 NHL Awards in Sin City on Wednesday night.

The right-wing enjoyed a sublime 2018-19 season, firstly for the struggling Ottawa Senators before lighting it up for the Golden Knights after being dealt to Vegas at the trade deadline.

He posted five goals and six assists for 11 points in 18 regular season games for the Knights, in addition to tallying 12 points (six goals, six assists) in seven playoff contests.

In total, Stone registered 33 goals and 40 assists for 73 points in 77 regular season games in 2018-19 for Ottawa and Vegas, achieving career-highs in goals, points and power play points with 20 (six goals, 14 assists).

It isn’t only Stone’s offensive prowess that he deserves credit for, though, given that the 27-year-old has carved out a reputation as an elite two-way forward.

He led the entire NHL in takeaways in 2018-19 with 122, while also totalling 71 blocked shots, 72 hits and a win percentage of 45.2 in the faceoff circle.

However, it wasn’t enough to land Stone the first Selke Trophy of his career with St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly claiming 48 first place votes to win the award handed out to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.

It was an extremely close-run race, though, with Stone collecting 42 first place votes to finish as the runner-up and Boston Bruins star Patrice Bergeron coming in third.

Stone’s Vegas team-mate, William Karlsson was also in consideration for the Selke Trophy after finishing eighth with a vote apiece in the third and fourth rounds respectively.

It is the 15th straight season that a center has won the Selke with Dallas Stars forward Jere Lehtinen the last winger to take the prize back in 2003.

Stone, who had 881 points in total in the Selke Trophy voting, can count himself extremely unlucky not to have won the award after excelling in all areas in 2018-19, although O’Reilly did carve out a fine season himself, including leading the NHL in face-off wins with 1,086.

It was still a year to remember for Stone, however, and the right-shot is entering the prime of his career and is hitting the peak of his powers at just the right time.

He proved time and time again both down the stretch and in the postseason that he possesses the mental makeup to be able to come up clutch when the pressure is really on in the biggest moments, and that is the kind of player you need when you have aspirations of competing for championships.

This relationship between Stone and the Golden Knights is still in its infancy with the forward committed to the franchise until 2027, but the early signs suggest that this is a match made in heaven.

Much will be expected of Stone in 2019-20 when he begins his first full season as a Golden Knight, and it might be worth a bet that the best is still to come from the 2018-19 Selke Trophy finalist.

It is also worth noting that Marc-Andre Fleury finished fourth in voting for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s most outstanding goalie, while both Fleury and Stone received votes for the Hart Trophy which is dished out to the MVP of the NHL.

So, although there were no official winners on the night, it was still a pretty successful evening for the Vegas Golden Knights all things considered.

Other notes

Fleury & Reaves come out on top: There were some Vegas players to return home with some hardware on Wednesday, however, after Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Reaves emerged as winners in the NHL Fan Choice Awards.

Voted for by the fans, Fleury’s sublime save against Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct, 13 was crowned Save of the Year.

It was an absolutely ridiculous stop and Fleury’s 26 saves in total that night clinched a shutout and a 1-0 win against the Flyers.

Meanwhile, our lovable enforcer that is Ryan Reaves was recognised for having the best hidden talent after revealing his rather unique goal horn impression.

Ryan, whatever you do, please do not change. We love you.

Clarkson submits no-trade list: Jesse Granger, who does an excellent job covering the Knights for The Athletic, reported earlier this week that David Clarkson (yes he does still exist) has submitted his no-trade list.

Clarkson hasn’t laced up his skates for an NHL game in three years but he still has one-year remaining on his current contract with a cap hit of $5.25 million.

The Golden Knights are in salary cap hell right now so you would think that moving Clarkson’s contract either before or during the Draft this weekend is a priority.

Getting Karlsson inked: We have written a couple of pieces already this offseason about the importance of signing star center William Karlsson to a long-term deal.

The 26-year-old, who has totalled 154 points (76 goals, 78 assists) in 191 games (including the postseason), enters this summer as a restricted free agent.

Inking Karlsson to a long-term contract is a must for the Vegas front office, and they are under even more pressure to get a deal done now after the Philadelphia Flyers signed Kevin Hayes to a seven-year, $50 million contract this week, which works out to $7,142,857 million a year.

Karlsson is younger than Hayes and has produced more points in each of the last two years, meaning that the forward’s value will rocket if he is allowed to become an unrestricted free agent in 2020.

Time will tell how this all plays out but both parties remain keen to get a deal done and, given Karlsson’s body of work in Vegas and his upside, it is imperative that the Swedish sensation stays in Sin City.