LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knight can get back to celebrating.
On a recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported the Stanley Cup champions had a complaint filed against them by at least one team that questioned whether or not captain Mark Stone was really unable to suit up prior to the playoffs following back surgery - his second in nine months - back in January.
There are always eyebrows raised when a player is placed on LTIR during the regular season, the team adds at the trade deadline with the extra cap space, and the player is able to come back in time for Game 1.
But, according to Locked on Golden Knights, the NHL responded by asking for and digging into Stone's medical records, and the surgery he had back in January and the necessary recovery time was all deemed to be on the level.
The most glaring example of this is the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nikita Kucherov a few years back, and it goes back to the Chicago Blackhawks and Patrick Kane almost a decade ago.
This year's Boston Bruins made use of LTIR to add Tyler Bertuzzi prior to the trade deadline, but Vegas went under to microscope because of a specific complaint and, more importantly, because they went on to win the Cup.
Friedman added Stone will likely be in and out of the lineup next season due to load management despite the surgery fixing the issue, but that's par for the course these days for veteran NHLers looking to stay as sharp as possible for the postseason.