Mark Stone makes sense for the Vegas Golden Knights the way their season has gone.

They aren't winning like they were in 2017-18, when they won the Pacific Division, finished fifth in the NHL and went to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. They're 3-9-1 in their past 13 games and 32-26-5 overall, third in the Pacific.

They aren't scoring like they were last season, either. They finished fifth in the NHL in goals per game at 3.27 then. They entered Monday 19th at 2.90.

[RELATED: Stone traded to Golden Knights by Senators | 2018-19 NHL Trade Tracker]

Stone can give them a jolt. He has 28 goals, 34 assists and 62 points. No Vegas player has more than 20 goals, 27 assists or 43 points.

But immediate need isn't why the Golden Knights acquired Stone from the Ottawa Senators shortly before the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline on Monday at 3 p.m. ET.

"If we lost every game or won every game, it wouldn't have affected this," Vegas general manager George McPhee said. "You don't get players like this very often. Players this good aren't available through trade very often. Usually you draft a player like this and you can hang onto him, and he plays his whole career with you.

"So we knew that he was out there, that he was going to be available, and the issue was, what's it going to cost? And the price was right for us."

The price was too high for the Golden Knights when they checked with the Senators five days ago. But it came down as the clock ticked toward the deadline Monday. Vegas ended up sending forward Oscar Lindberg, defense prospect Erik Brannstrom and a second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft to Ottawa.

Stone is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent July 1 but is close to a contract with the Golden Knights.

Video: Elliotte Friedman on this year's trade deadline deals

"We've got a couple more things to do on that, but I don't anticipate any issues," McPhee said. "And we would not have done a rental. Too much risk in that."

This is a safe bet for the long term.

Lindberg, 27, has not played a big role since Vegas selected him from the New York Rangers in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, with 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 98 games over two seasons.

Brannstrom, 19, is a top prospect. The Golden Knights selected him in the first round (No. 15) of the 2017 NHL Draft. But they're still deep in defense prospects with Jake Bischoff, Dylan Coghlan, Nicolas Hague and Zach Whitecloud.

The 2020 second-round pick wouldn't pay dividends for years, and the Golden Knights still have an extra second-round selection in that draft from maneuvering in the expansion draft. They got it from the Pittsburgh Penguins for taking goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

"We've drafted well enough to be able to do a deal like this," McPhee said. "We drafted a good young player. We've drafted other good young players, and if we keep doing that, we'll be in good shape. We can make deals like this, or they can play for us. We're going to go to the draft again this summer and see if we can find some more gems."

This Stone is a diamond, a crown jewel. He has 311 points (123 goals, 188 assists) in 366 NHL games. He hasn't scored fewer than 20 goals in a full season.

"Stone is the here, the now, the future," McPhee said. "He's only 26 years old."

Video: The crew discusses the Golden Knights adding Stone

Assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon knows Stone from Brandon of the Western Hockey League. McCrimmon was majority owner, general manager and coach when Stone played there from 2008-12.

McPhee knows Stone from the 2016 IIHF World Championship. He was co-general manager and Stone was a player when Canada won gold in Moscow.

"We believe he's one of the best all-around players in the NHL and helps to make our team better," McPhee said. "He's as fine a person as you can find in this game. You like him off the ice; you like him on the ice."

McPhee raved about how Stone could play in any situation -- overtime, power play, penalty kill, protecting leads, catching up, making plays, scoring goals. He said he was a favorite of the analytics department and even made an impression over the phone.

"Those kinds of people always seem to say and do the right thing, and it just sort of oozes out of them," McPhee said. "We got another high, high character person and a real good player."

The most telling comment came at the end of McPhee's press conference. This was the kind of player the Golden Knights wanted, the kind of player for which they have searched, from the beginning.

"We start every day by putting our blueprint up," McPhee said. "What were our objectives a couple years ago? What are we trying to do here? And it's a good reminder to read it over and have everyone look at it and talk about where we're trying to go and what we're trying to accomplish.

"And this fit."