Vegas jumps through hoops to stay under the salary cap and get Mark Stone into the lineup

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer has confirmed that captain Mark Stone will be game-time decision for tonight's contest against the Vancouver Canucks.

Hours later though the team confirmed in a cryptic tweet that he will indeed play this evening:

If you didn't figure it out, the message is "MARK STONE IS BACK"... how creative...

Stone hasn't played since early February due to a back injury and was placed on long-term injury reserve in order for the team to clear salary cap space for Jack Eichel's insertion into the lineup. Now in order to get Stone back into the lineup the Golden Knights have had to place William Carrier, Nolan Patrick and Laurent Brossoit on LTIR in order to gain $4.925M in cap relief.

All legitimate and above board, I'm sure...

Honestly, the way that Vegas and the Tampa Bay Lightning have made a mockery of the NHL's salary cap should warrant some sort of intervention by the league. Then again, you know the old saying... if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.