Without meaning to, Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy created a huge controversy yesterday during his playoff press conference. Cassidy announced that the team's captain, Mark Stone, would be returning to the lineup for the first game of the playoffs against the Winnipeg Jets. The problem with this is that Stone has not played a game since January 12. While the organization has absolutely no financial leeway to be able to reinstate his $9.5M contract in the middle of the season, which was exempt from the payroll thanks to the long-term injury list, he will magically make his return in time for the first game of the series. Doesn't that ring a bell? Well, for a majority of journalists, analysts covering the NHL and fans, it just doesn't fly and Gary Bettman and the league are under a lot of criticism. <q>Amazing how often we see players get healthy JUST in time for the playoffs. Like, what an amazing coincidence! - Arpon Basu</q> <q>Amazing how the NHL allows this to happen. - Stu Cowan</q> <q>When will they act to stop teams like Las Vegas and Tampa Bay from doing this? It's an unfair advantage in the playoffs!</q> It's absolutely clear that Stone could have made a return well before the playoffs, but given the Knights' salary situation, management simply ordered him to wait until the postseason to make his return and the team was guaranteed to make the playoffs. It's reminiscent of the Nikita Kucherov situation in 2021, who missed the entire season, but magically showed up in time for the first game of the playoffs, when the Lightning were also struggling with payroll issues. Like Kucherov, what a stroke of luck that Stone is back healthy just as the playoffs begin. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/ArponBasu/status/1648042694713700370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1648042694713700370%7Ctwgr%5E8e7c8453b94de4403fefb8035ed4e94ee9a6e9df%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.habsetlnh.com%2FAnnonce-speciale-une-grosse-controverse-vient-declater-a-Las-Vegas-et-Gary-Bettman-est-vise-228444'> </a></blockquote></div> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/StuCowan1/status/1648314729805299714'> </a></blockquote></div> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/JesseGranger_/status/1648041183464292354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1648041183464292354%7Ctwgr%5E8e7c8453b94de4403fefb8035ed4e94ee9a6e9df%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.habsetlnh.com%2FAnnonce-speciale-une-grosse-controverse-vient-declater-a-Las-Vegas-et-Gary-Bettman-est-vise-228444'> </a></blockquote></div> Credit: <a href='https://www.habsetlnh.com/equipe-lnh/knights-de-vegas/Annonce-speciale-une-grosse-controverse-vient-declater-a-Las-Vegas-et-Gary-Bettman-est-vise' class='link_marker' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>HabsetLNH.com</a>