The 30-year-old forward, who had surgery May 19, has been expected to miss part of training camp, which begins Sept. 21. The Golden Knights play their season opener Oct. 11 at the Los Angeles Kings.
"Mark's in town, he's skating," general manager Kelly McCrimmon told the "Vegas Golden Knights Insider Hockey Show" on Tuesday. "Our expectation is he's going to be available for the opening of the season. What that means exactly with respect to training camp, we'll see."
Stone missed chunks of time last season because of injuries, including 26 games with a back injury from Feb. 9-April 9, with Vegas going 12-13-1 during that span. The Golden Knights captain returned down the stretch when they fought for a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he had one assist in eight games. Vegas (43-31-8) finished three points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card in the Western Conference and missed the playoffs for the first time since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18.
Stone had 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 37 games.
"I think that when you have these offseason surgeries … really, you don't have that definitive timeline until the players get here," McCrimmon said. "They work with your medical team, you see how they respond to certain treatments, to certain levels of intensity. … So, that's how we'll play it out."
Since being acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 25, 2019, Stone has 165 points (56 goals, 109 assists) in 175 regular-season games and 37 points (18 goals, 19 assists) in 46 playoff games for Vegas.
