If you go back and read the stories about Stone in his last few weeks here, you'll note that the stories from Garrioch (management's pet reporter) were very carefully worded. They talked about making a "creative" offer to Stone - that's when you knew the goose was cooked. Why should a top shelf soon-to-be UFA sign a "creative" (code for "not full market value") deal? Apparently our definition of creative was five years at 10 mil or 10.5 mil a year - 50 to 55 million total value. Vegas gave him $76 million in total value, with the maximum allowed in bonuses and a full NMC.
Also cast your mind back to Melnyk's speech in Toronto in late January or so, when he said he was willing to spend to the cap...someday, but not today. That was your biggest hint, followed up by Ruszkowski openly speculating about a scenario where we don't re-sign Stone. The writing was on the wall for us in ten foot high letters - they had no intention of offering Stone the kind of gold-plated, full market value contract that Vegas did. (Oh, and be grateful that Vegas extended him - that's what gave us a stud like Brannstrom in return instead of a handful of magic beans.)