The pain of trading away Mark Stone will never really go away but sometimes a consolation prize makes that pain softer. In our case, that prize was top prospect Erik Brannstrom, who scored 32 points in 50 games played in the AHL in the past season.
Erik Brannstrom is touted as a speedy and smart two-way defenseman who all fans have every reason to be excited about. Golden Knights fans were extremely reluctant to give him up in a rumoured trade for Karlsson and some were extremely enraged he was part of the Stone trade—and he hadn’t played one NHL game at that point.