Brandt Clarke Remembers When Mark Stone Scared Him Straight

Last night the Golden Knights prospects hit the ice in El Segundo, California as part of the annual Rookie Faceoff. VGK’s youngsters shutout the Kings 2-0 with goals from Jakub Brabenec and Braeden Bowman. On the other side of the ice there may have been a familiar name to Golden Knights fans, Brandt Clarke.

The 8th overall pick in the 2021 Draft anchored the Kings’ defense as he attempts to stick with the big club in Los Angeles for the full season this year.

Clarke may be known to Vegas fans because of his meme-worthy run-in with Mark Stone in last year’s preseason. In that game, Stone was hit incredibly hard by career minor leaguer Hayden Hodgson. A melee ensued and it ended with Stone grabbing 20-year-old Clarke by the jersey and seemingly scaring the life out of him.

Stone spewed some epic stuff in the locker room following the preseason game.

That’s probably the last time I’ll ever play against that guy (Hodgson). Not really much of a player, so I’ll leave it at that. I think I scared (Clarke) a little, didn’t I? Honestly, I was looking around for some of their talented players and trying to run at them. He was the only one. -Mark Stone

On the latest episode of Kings of the Podcast, Clarke told his side of the story.

The whole Mark Stone situation blew out of proportion so much. I didn’t ever really get to talk about it and I was kind of upset about that. –Brandt Clarke on Kings of the Podcast

He recalled his entire account of the events.

I remember Hodgson laying a big hit on him. It was a big hit and all the guys kind of jump in, gloves are flying. I’m just back from a shoulder injury so I’m like just trying to pull guys off the pile and then Hodgson gets dragged to the middle of the ice and Stone is standing there and wires get crossed and I made the mistake of trying to calm him down cause I know him a little bit. But the wires were crossed and his gloves were already off and he’s got a strong grip on me and my shoulder was kind of turned inwards and I’m like oh my god this hurts really bad. And he’s upset because it’s a hit in the preseason. So he’s asking me to fight and I’m like I really can’t fight, my shoulder, like I really should not be fighting right now. This is not a good spot for me to be in. So I’m like ok, I’m just trying to derail the situation as much as possible but he was obviously furious and yeah that was definitely a moment. And then the camera caught my face in a not ideal situation there. I made the wrong choice to try and step in the way there but no it’ll all be good when we play Vegas. –Clarke on Kings of the Podcast

Clarke went on to say he and Stone skated together this summer in Ottawa and they were laughing and joking with each other about the incident.

The Golden Knights and Kings play again this preseason at T-Mobile Arena on September 25th. Clarke and Stone could both be in the lineup, Hodgson however signed with the Senators this summer, so Stone’s prediction of never playing against him again will likely remain intact.