According to Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen, Mark Stone has suffered a concussion at training camp today. There is currently no timetable for his return. Warren tweeted earlier that Stone had been replaced by Matt Puempel on a line with Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman during drills, before eventually relating the news of the head injury.
This is troubling news for the Senators, as brain injuries can take a long time to heal, as they’ve experienced with Clarke MacArthur in recent seasons. Just in April, Stone had to leave a game after taking a huge hit from Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien and underwent concussion testing. He was lucky that time to have no lasting effects, and hopefully he can avoid any long-term damage once again.
Stone has been a revelation for the Senators since selecting him in the sixth round of the 2010 draft. Runner-up for the Calder trophy in 2014-15, he’s now a back-to-back 20+ goal scorer and is still just 24-years old. His 125 points in his first two full seasons puts him on an elite-pace, something that may be disrupted by this new injury.