Coyotes’ Michael Stone out at least six months with knee injury

Mar 24, 2016; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue (35) watches the puck as Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) and defenseman Michael Stone (26) look on during the third period at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 24, 2016; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue (35) watches the puck as Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) and defenseman Michael Stone (26) look on during the third period at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports /
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Arizona Coyotes defenseman Michael Stone will be out for at least the next six months. 

The Arizona Coyotes have had a successful season despite not making the playoffs. One of the reasons that their season should be considered a success is because of the development of defenseman Michael Stone. He has emerged as a legitimate second pairing defenseman for them and has performed well this season despite being miscast as a top pairing defenseman.

Stone suffered a knee injury and had damage to both his ACL and MCL. The team has announced that Stone will be out for at least the next six months.

That’s a huge loss for the Coyotes. Stone has been great for Arizona this season. He has six goals this season, setting career highs in assists (30) and points (36) while playing over 22 minutes per game. Stone is a great complement to Oliver Ekman-Larsson and plays a ton of minutes at all situations. For the Coyotes, Stone has been everything that they could have hoped for.

It remains to be seen if this will cost Stone any of the 2016-2017 regular season. If he is out for six months, that means that he will be back around early October. It’s likely that he will miss at least a few games of the 2016-2017 season.

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