Seven Years Later, Former Senator Mark Stone Still Has Plenty Left…

When Mark Stone was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights, some Ottawa Senators fans consoled themselves with the thought that, had the Senators signed Stone to a long-term extension, the last few years of the contract might not look that good.

After all, he wasn’t the game’s finest skater to start with, so when age or injuries kicked in, he might lose a step that he didn’t have to give.

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Nearly seven years later, that theory isn’t holding up very well.

With 60 points in 41 games, Stone remains a top-20 NHL scorer. And on Thursday in Milan, skating for one of the most stacked Canadian rosters ever assembled, he was one of their better players. Stone was noticeable on almost every shift and scored in Canada’s 5-0 Olympic-opening win over Czechia.

He even broke out the classic goal-scoring face that Ottawa fans used to love.

When it comes to how Ottawa management handled a star like Stone, combined with getting next to nothing for him in a trade, his story has to be near the top of the list of biggest blunders in team history.

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Former Sens GM Pierre Dorion said the organization only realized days before the deadline that Stone likely wouldn’t re-sign.

But on that very same day, across town, owner Eugene Melnyk told CBC Ottawa something entirely different: this trade had been planned for some time as part of the rebuild.

Those two explanations never quite lined up then, and they don’t now.

Had Stone been given a long-term extension in his previous negotiation instead of a one-year deal, he would have offered an excellent veteran presence in the young Sens locker room.

Instead, they traded him, and Ottawa then spent years searching for exactly the kind of culture-setting, two-way star…