Golden Knights’ Mark Stone rips Kings’ Hayden Hodgson after taking huge hit: ‘Not really much of a player’

Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone took a thunderous hit from Los Angeles Kings forward Hayden Hodgson in Wednesday’s preseason game. Following the game, Stone didn’t bite his tongue regarding the play as he stated Hodgson “isn’t much of a player.”

“That’s probably the last time I’ll ever play against that guy,” Stone said, courtesy of FOX 5 Vegas’ Vince Sapienza. “Not really much of a player, so I’ll leave it at that.”

Hodgson leveled Stone into the boards behind the Vegas net during the second period. Upon getting back up to his feet, Stone immediately skated toward Hodgson and the situation turned into a powder keg.

“I think I scared him a little, didn’t I? Honestly, I was looking around for some of their talented players and trying to run at them,” Stone added. “He was the only one.” 

Hodgson has logged just seven games at the NHL level in his professional career. Those came as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers over the past two seasons. The Flyers traded Hodgson to the Kings in June as part of a three-team deal that sent goaltender Cal Petersen and defenseman Sean Walker to Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s contest marked the preseason debut for Stone. This comes off of a year in which the Golden Knights star was limited to 43 regular-season games due to a back injury. Stone tallied 24 points (11 goals and 13 assists) during the Golden Knights’ run to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

The Golden Knights ended up losing 4-3 in overtime to the Kings, as forward Akil Thomas powered Los Angeles to victory with a hat trick. The two teams will do battle once again on Oct. 7 in another preseason contest before facing off on Oct. 28 in regular-season play. 

Vegas is aiming to become only the 17th team in NHL history to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.