‘I have the most pride in playing for my country’

Mark Stone feared he might have missed his one and only chance at the Olympics.

The Winnipegger was on the radar for Beijing in 2022, only to see the NHL withdraw from the Games due to the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding literal injury to insult, ongoing back issues became too much to bear, forcing him under the knife a few months later and casting uncertainty over his future.

“When I went down before my second surgery, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to play again. You know, it creeps into the back of your mind. The first surgery didn’t work,” Stone said Tuesday prior to his Vegas Golden Knights facing the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre.

Turns out the second time was the charm — both for his medical procedure and his dream of playing on the sport’s biggest stage. Stone was named last week to Canada’s Olympic squad, which will head to Italy early next month.

“Definitely honoured and excited that this opportunity came for me,” said the 33-year-old. “These are experiences that you dream of.”

One of the NHL’s premier two-way forwards when healthy, Stone is expected to play a pivotal role on a Canadian team that will enter as gold medal favourites following last year’s dramatic overtime victory over the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

He wasn’t taking anything for granted, especially after attending Canada’s orientation camp last summer in Calgary and sizing up the competition.

“I’m a confident player, but going into the season you look around the league and even the camp we were at in Calgary, there’s 42, 43 guys there,” said Stone.

“These are experiences that you dream of.”

“You could put six guys in and take six guys out and you’re probably still having the same conversations, right? It’s a very deep group of hockey players in Canada still, which is what we want as a nation. There’s obviously going to be difficult decisions to be made. I’m just fortunate that I’m one of the ones that made the team.”

Stone’s road to Milano Cortina began in St. James, where he played his minor hockey before earning a spot with the Winnipeg Thrashers. He first turned heads outside the province at the 2008 Telus Cup, finishing as the tournament’s top scorer.

That fall, Stone headed a couple of hours west to join the Brandon Wheat Kings, becoming a dominant force over four Western Hockey League seasons. Drafted in the sixth round (178th overall) by the Ottawa Senators in 2010, he made his NHL debut two years later.

Tuesday’s matchup against his hometown Jets marked Stone’s 731st NHL game, to go along with 112 playoff contests, highlighted by a Stanley Cup championship in 2022–23. Now comes an opportunity to add another piece of hardware as the NHL returns to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

Stone will have some provincial company in the form of Elkhorn’s Travis Sanheim, who patrols the blue line for the Philadelphia Flyers. Winnipegger Seth Jarvis — who was also a teammate at the 4 Nations — did not make the Olympic cut but is on the stand-by list in case of injury.

“I have the most pride in playing for my country,” said Stone, who has previously worn the Maple Leaf at the IIHF World Championship.

“It’s special. First Olympics, and this one’s going to be different. It’s not just us, but we’ve got the women’s team, we have skiers, other athletes. That’s an experience I’m really excited for and really looking forward to.”

Stone said he’ll embrace whatever role the Canadian coaching staff asks of him — whether that’s skating on the top line, the fourth line or even serving as a healthy scratch. He joked that even that would beat spending the Olympic break “on a beach in the Bahamas.”

“The (4 Nations) games were awesome. It was some of the most fun hockey I’ve ever been in. Also, just hanging out in the team room, hanging out with the best players on this planet, those are also some of the experiences that I absolutely loved and adored,” he said.

“I’m sure if you ask guys who were on the American (team) or on the Swedes or the Finns, it was the same thing. You get all of these guys together from the same country, you fight against each other (in the NHL season) and then you put that aside for a 10-day span and try to win something for your country, it means everything.”

Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy, who will serve as an assistant with Team Canada and help run the power play, said bringing Stone along was an easy decision.

“I’m happy for him. He’s certainly deserving,” he said.

“We see him every day. A lot of people don’t see him, especially Vegas when you’re the later games out east. So I don’t think he gets his due enough, personally, for all the little things he does. I know the guys in the locker room at 4 Nations loved him and guys liked playing with him. He’s going to certainly help us.”

While his back has held up, Stone has battled other significant injuries, including a lacerated spleen in 2024 and broken fingers earlier this season that cost him 16 games.

“Overall, the body, other than freak injuries, it’s been pretty good,” he said. “I still feel like I can still play any way you want me to play.”

For Vegas, that means driving one of the league’s most effective lines alongside Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev. Stone entered Tuesday with 33 points (12 goals, 21 assists) in 24 games, putting him on pace to smash his career-high 67 points set last season.

Stone said family and friends are still sorting out whether they’ll be able to travel to Italy to watch him compete in person.

“Not entirely sure yet, it’s still pretty fresh,” he said. “I was just so excited to be a part of it. I don’t know how to explain it. A lot of cursing when you get the call. Just fired up for it. It’s something I never thought I’d get to do after 2022.”

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