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Tomas Hertl

Snapshots: Verhaeghe, Couture And Hertl, Senators Cap Hit

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Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice shared with The Hockey News that he will be holding top-six forward Carter Verhaeghe out of the team’s first preseason game. Verhaeghe “tightened up” on the first day of camp, per Maurice, and has been skating on the side as a precaution ever since. However, the Panthers aren’t expecting the injury to last through training camp – with Maurice sharing that, even if he wears a no-contact jersey through Wednesday, Verhaeghe should be playing in preseason games soon.

Verhaeghe has been an important piece of the Florida top-six since joining the team in 2020, averaging 17 minutes a night through three seasons in Florida. He’s also tallied 164 points in 202 career games with the Panthers, including a staggering 42 goals and 73 points in 81 games last season. Going over those scoring totals makes it clear why Florida would want to be careful with overextending Verhaeghe. Maurice’s emphasis on being cautious also gives fans good insight into how the team is planning to operate. Florida faced a slew of injuries last season, including an Achilles injury that held Anthony Duclair out of a majority of the season and are looking to flip those fortunes in a new year. Verhaeghe is the first to face this cautiousness but how it will carry into the regular season should be interesting to see.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka shared that the San Jose Sharks would be open to trading Logan Couture or Tomas Hertl, if the veterans want to leave. It seems San Jose recognizes the situation they’re in and understands if their aging veterans want to chase the playoffs. However, their contracts may be difficult to move. Couture carries an $8MM cap hit and Hertl carries $8.1375MM, both with some sort of trade protection. While a deal would come at the request of either player, meaning trade protection wouldn’t likely make much impact, it’ll still be challenging to work out the logistics in the flat-cap environment the NHL currently finds itself in. Nonetheless, being offered top-end talent previously only offered to San Jose should be enticing for any NHL club.
  • New Senators owner Michael Andlauer spoke to the team’s salary cap situation and unsigned RFA Shane Pinto. He told the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch that, “We’re at the cap. We have a problem signing Shane Pinto because we are at the cap. At the end of the end of the day, it’s about sustainability and making sure we have enough money in the coffers to pay our players and making sure we’re sustainable”. He went on to emphasize that player success drives fan interest, which then drives the money ownership can put back toward the players. While these comments likely don’t impact the chances of Pinto re-signing, they could limit the upside of his cap hit.

West Notes: Sharks, Predators, Steel, Nill, Sale

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The San Jose Sharks just drafted a potential first-line center with the fourth overall pick with Will Smith, and at the draft in Nashville, there are some rumors that the team’s current top-six centers could be on the move. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports that “teams have talked to” the Sharks about Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture.

Pagnotta stressed that no trade is close, and it’s worth noting that Hertl has a full no-move clause and Couture has a three-team no-trade list. It’d be a hard trade to complete, but the news that they’re listening on their two top centers signals GM Mike Grier is leaving no stone unturned as he attempts to rebuild San Jose into a playoff contender.

Some other notes from the Western Conference:

  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cites colleague Jeff Marek to report that the two restricted free agents the Nashville Predators will issue qualifying offers are center Cody Glass and defenseman Alexandre Carrier. That means notable players such as 2017 first-round pick Cal Foote and capable defensive winger Rasmus Asplund will hit the open market. It’s somewhat a surprise to see Foote go unqualified, seeing that he was recently acquired as part of the Tanner Jeannot trade and does have a first-round pedigree.
  • Sam Steel won’t be issued a qualifying offer by the Minnesota Wild, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo. Steel had a decent season with the Wild, scoring 10 goals and 28 points playing at times in the team’s number-one center role. But the Wild could be weary of Steel’s arbitration potential given their dire cap issues, so he’ll now have a chance to hit the open market in a few days.
  • Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill was named the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year, beating out finalists Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers. While Nill’s club didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup Final like Zito’s or go on a historic regular season run like Sweeney’s, Nill’s shrewd moves such as acquiring Max Domi and Evgenii Dadonov during the season helped propel the club to the Western Conference Final.
  • Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reports that Eduard Sale, the Seattle Kraken’s recent first-round pick, is going to play for the OHL’s Barrie Colts next season. Sale has played the last two seasons in Czechia’s top pro league for Brno Kometa, and now will get the chance to play against his peers in major junior hockey. He’s an exceptionally skilled offensive player, so Colts fans should expect Sale to be among their top scorers if all goes well.

Pacific Notes: Boeser, Johansson, Weegar, Sharks

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Canucks winger Brock Boeser has been featured in plenty of trade speculation in recent months but while a deal didn’t materialize last month, some have wondered if he’ll be on the move this summer.  But if the 26-year-old has his way, he won’t be going anywhere.  He told reporters including Thomas Drance of The Athletic (Twitter link) that he doesn’t want to be traded and would prefer to remain with Vancouver.  This season was a mixed bag for Boeser who actually came one point shy of matching his career high but he managed just 18 goals which isn’t a great return on a $6.65MM AAV.  He has two years remaining on his contract.

Elsewhere in the Pacific:

  • Canucks prospect Filip Johansson will be joining AHL Abbotsford for their playoff run, relays Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic (Twitter link). The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Minnesota back in 2018 but the Wild opted to take a compensatory second-round selection instead of signing him; Johansson signed with Vancouver soon after.  He played in 51 games with Frolunda of the SHL this season, picking up five goals and 16 assists, both career highs while also chipping in with five points in a dozen playoff contests.  This will be Johansson’s first taste of action in North America.
  • Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar will suit up for Canada at the upcoming World Championship, reports Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson. The 29-year-old had a bit of a down year in his first season with Calgary, seeing his point output dip from 44 to 31 (in 81 games) while his playing time was shaved by more than two minutes per game.  While Weegar’s current contract expires in June, he has already locked in with the Flames for the long haul, inking an eight-year, $50MM extension back in October.  This will be Weegar’s first time suiting up for Canada in an international tournament.
  • Sharks winger Tomas Hertl won’t be suiting up at the Worlds next month, notes Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link). The 29-year-old struggled defensively in what he called a challenging season but reached the 60-point mark for the second straight year and third time in his career while winning nearly 55% of his faceoffs.  His 63 points placed Hertl third on the team in scoring.  Meanwhile, in a separate tweet, Pashelka notes that center Nico Sturm will play for Germany in the tournament, his first time representing his home country.  The 27-year-old had a career year this season, collecting 14 goals and 12 assists in 74 games.

Tomas Hertl Suspended Two Games

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5:09 pm: Hertl has been handed a two-game suspension for high-sticking by the Department of Player Safety this afternoon. In explaining their rationale for the decision, DoPS gave the following statement in their explanatory video:

It is important to note that this is not a reckless or careless use of the stick. Rather, this is a directed, retaliatory stick swing that strikes an opponent at a dangerous height. 

10:51 am: The Department of Player Safety has some more work to do, as San Jose Sharks forward Tomas Hertl will have a hearing today. The potential supplementary discipline stems from a high-sticking incident in last night’s game against the Calgary Flames, when Hertl retaliated against Elias Lindholm. He was penalized on the play, and took responsibility after the game:

I got cross-checked three times to the shoulder. I tried to slash him on the stick, but the stick slid a little high. It’s a terrible penalty…it’s a mistake by me, I can’t do that. You never try to hit a guy high, but it happened. 

The Flames already got some revenge, as Lindholm would score on the ensuing powerplay and again 20 seconds after that, before Dillon Dube put the game out of reach a few minutes later. Hertl would eventually score a powerplay goal of his own partway through the third, but the penalty had put the game out of reach for the Sharks.

He now faces a potential suspension, and there have been several already this season that suggest one will be coming. Jeff Skinner, Matthew Tkachuk, Pierre Engvall, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Michael Rasmussen have all received punishment for high-sticking incidents, though they have varied in force and situation. Skinner’s three-game ban was the longest of the bunch, handed out earlier this month.

For those wondering if some other discipline would be coming down from the league, namely for a hit from Sam Lafferty on Filip Chytil, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports there will not.

Snapshots: Sharks, Domi, Bruins

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It appears that the Sharks have determined their list of untouchables and it’s a pretty small one.  In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported that San Jose’s list of players that they’re not open to considering trading starts and ends with Tomas Hertl who is just beginning an eight-year, $65.1MM contract.  GM Mike Grier made one notable shakeup trade last summer with the move of Brent Burns to Carolina and will certainly be looking to continue to reshape his roster.  As we start to see a bit of trade activity around the league, the Sharks could be a team to watch for over the next little while on that front.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • While Max Domi joined the Blackhawks early in free agency on a one-year deal, it appears as if that wasn’t his original preference. In his latest column for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reports that Domi’s camp had approached the Maple Leafs to gauge their interest in a one-year deal at a significantly lower price than the $3MM he received from Chicago.  Obviously, Toronto opted to go in a different direction, adding Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the opening day of free agency and Calle Jarnkrok two days later as forwards signing for more than the minimum.
  • Bruins GM Don Sweeney met with the media (video link) on Thursday following their trade with Vancouver. Sweeney acknowledged that discussions with winger David Pastrnak about a contract extension continue on a regular basis but that they have not yet “found the endpoint”.  The 26-year-old is off to a hot start with 15 points in eight games to start the season and is set to land a significant raise on his current $6.667MM AAV, one that could push his cap hit near or past the $10MM mark.
  • Sweeney also indicated that they’ve not yet worked out where they will send goaltender Michael DiPietro who was acquired in yesterday’s swap. They have two netminders with AHL Providence already – Keith Kinkaid and Kyle Keyser – while they have Brandon Bussi at the ECHL level as well.  As DiPietro is past his entry-level contract, he has the ability to block an assignment to the ECHL.  Speculatively, if DiPietro wants to stay in the AHL, a short-term loan to another AHL squad could be a possible outcome with Sweeney suggesting they have a couple of options in the works for their new goalie at the moment.

San Jose Sharks Sign Long-Term Extension With Tomas Hertl

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The San Jose Sharks have maintained throughout the early part of the season that they would work hard to extend Tomas Hertl instead of trading him, and they have followed through on that promise. The two sides have agreed on an eight-year extension that will keep Hertl in San Jose through the 2029-30 season. Though the team did not immediately report the financial terms of the deal, but Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that it will carry an average annual value of $8,137,500. The deal also includes a full no-movement clause in the first three years and a limited no-trade clause in the last five.

Acting general manager Joe Will released a lengthy statement on the deal, which includes:

By agreeing to this contract, Tomas is cementing his path with the Sharks, following in the footsteps of some incredible players who have worn the Sharks crest. He has shown that he wants to play in San Jose for years to come and it shows his dedication to the organization and community since he joined the team in 2012. We are thrilled to have Tomas for another eight years.

Hertl, 28, is in the final season of a four-year, $22.5MM contract signed in 2018 that carries a cap hit of $5.625MM. Notably, that deal includes a no-trade clause that allows the Sharks’ forward to block deals to all but three teams in the league. That would have made trading him even more difficult, though there never did seem to be an appetite for a split from either party.

While he has slowed down considerably over the last two months, Hertl is still having an excellent season with 25 goals and 48 points in 59 games for the Sharks, trailing only Timo Meier in terms of offensive output. He’s now being rewarded for his strong play with a contract very similar to captain Logan Couture, the team’s other star center that carries much of the offensive load. With Evander Kane’s contract off the books (pending a grievance), the Sharks did have some extra cap space to spend.

Still, signing another big-money, long-term deal will certainly raise eyebrows. The Sharks aren’t really in the playoff race this season and now have five players on the books through at least 2024-25 at a cap hit of $7MM or more. Hertl is actually the youngest of that group and is still now signed through his age-36 season. It’s hard to really know what direction the team is going; maybe those veteran talents are enough to carry them to the next level, or perhaps they’re going to turn into anchors that keep the Sharks at the bottom of the Pacific for years to come.

At any rate, Hertl gets to stay with the only franchise he’s ever known, and continue to pile up points as one of the team’s most important players. He has scored 371 points in his 562-game career, numbers that already put him seventh among the Sharks’ all-time scoring leaders. He has a long way to go to catch some of the players in front of him–Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton lead the group at 1,111 and 1,055 points respectively–but another eight years could very well mean he spends his entire career in San Jose.

For the rest of the NHL, a top trade target comes off the board, making other centers all the more valuable before Monday’s deadline. If teams were interested in the Sharks forward, they’ll have to pivot over the next few days.

Other pending free agents like Nazem Kadri also must be smiling when they see Hertl’s number come up, as there are certainly some red flags with a deal like this. Not only is he now signed well into the normal decline phase of an NHL player but Hertl also has never even scored at a point-per-game rate. His closes was in 2018-19 when he had 35 goals and 74 points in 77 games, and no one doubts his talent as a difference-maker. But someone like Kadri, with 73 points in 58 game this season, or even top free agent wingers like Johnny Gaudreau (78 points in 59 games) and Filip Forsberg (55 points in 47 games) should all be able to demand huge salaries this summer as the league’s finances start to rebound.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Hertl, MacKinnon, Devils

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One of the biggest question marks at this year’s Trade Deadline will undoubtedly be the availability of star San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl, who will be a pending unrestricted free agent this offseason. Despite an early-season surge, the Sharks aren’t likely to be in the playoff picture and although Hertl’s voiced his desire to stay in San Jose if the team doesn’t feel an extension is reachable, he could be on his way out for a nice return. However, while those contract talks have started, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports that the team hasn’t made an official extension offer to Hertl as the deadline is now just one month away. Pagnotta speculates that the Sharks should extend an official offer to Hertl within the next week or two, giving them an abbreviated timeframe to decide on whether or not to trade him.

Some more notes on this Monday night:

  • Eyebrows rose across the internet when a video of Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon seemingly slashing a linesman on the legs after the opening faceoff of their game today against Boston went viral. However, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet 590 says that he was told NHL hockey operations and officials investigated the incident, and no further discipline will be handed to MacKinnon for the play. That’s great for the Avs, who have already been without MacKinnon for chunks of time this season as injuries have limited him to 35 games.
  • Also according to Pagnotta, the New Jersey Devils could be active at the Trade Deadline, but not necessarily as a stereotypical seller. General manager Tom Fitzgerald could look to make a traditional asset-for-asset type of deal, and that’s not entirely surprising. The team’s been linked, by multiple reports, in recent days to the Vancouver Canucks, and could look to acquire either one of Conor Garland or Brock Boeser to improve the team’s waning depth on the wings.

Latest On Tomas Hertl

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Feb 13: Hertl continues to be a hot topic among the Sharks fanbase and media. Today, a piece by The Athletic’s Corey Masisak breaks down a whole host of potential comparables for a Hertl contract. He names Mika Zibanejad as one of the closest possible comparisons for Hertl, with Zibanejad signing an eight-year, $68MM extension this offseason.

Feb 12: Today, Hertl spoke on the subject with reporters including Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News. He explained that though he can’t guarantee a deal will get done, he would like to stay in San Jose if possible and play his entire career with the Sharks.

Feb 10: The San Jose Sharks are an interesting team to keep an eye on as the trade deadline approaches given their current position in the standings. The team has now lost three in a row and sits sixth in the Pacific Division, a long way from truly contending for the Stanley Cup. There’s also one name that would draw a ton of interest if made available; Tomas Hertl is a pending free agent with 22 goals and 38 points in 46 games this season.

The Sharks have maintained for some time that they would rather sign Hertl to an extension as a core piece of the team, and Joe Will, who is serving as interim general manager while Doug Wilson deals with a health issue, spoke to Corey Masisak of The Athletic about that specific topic today. Will does “not have any interest” in doing anything outside of contract negotiations, suggesting that a trade is off the table at this point. He also stated that he believes Hertl wants to stay in San Jose long-term.

That would certainly follow what Hertl has said publicly to this point. In September, he hinted that he would even be willing to take less money to stay in San Jose if the team was competitive, not wanting to max out his earning potential somewhere else just to lose for the next chunk of his career.

Of course, while only focusing on extension talks may be his stance now, Will could be missing a huge opportunity to add assets to the organization if he allows the trade deadline to pass without a resolution one way or the other on Hertl’s next deal. Contract negotiations can always fall apart, meaning if something isn’t done in the next six weeks, there will be a difficult decision to be made.

Among players on expiring contracts, it’s hard to find a more attractive mix of size, skill, and versatility than Hertl. The 6’3″ forward is a natural center but can also play the wing if necessary, is proficient on the powerplay and the penalty kill, has easy 30-goal upside, and only carries a cap hit of $5.625MM this season. The amount of value the Sharks could likely receive in a deadline deal is tremendous, but with any deal of that nature, it begs the question of whether that makes them a better team than signing Hertl long-term. If there is still a realistic shot at an extension, it’s easy to see the draw of keeping him given his public desire to stay.

The Sharks have 16 games left before the March 21 trade deadline. While those are still the focus with the playoffs not completely out of reach, Hertl’s future is certainly the biggest question mark in San Jose right now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Hertl, Allen, Byron

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The San Jose Sharks’ unexpected rise back to relevancy this season has answered a lot of questions, but the Tomas Hertl situation still hangs over the team’s heads. On TSN’s Insider Trading program today, Pierre LeBrun says he expects the Sharks to “circle back” with Hertl and give him an extension offer. The pending unrestricted free agent has 31 points in 37 games this season. The team’s lone 20-goal scorer so far is in the final year of a four-year, $22.5MM contract. In the case that Hertl doesn’t agree to an extension prior to the trade deadline, though, LeBrun notes the trade front is still an option. Hertl has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of three teams to which he’ll accept a trade. LeBrun believes the New York Rangers would be an option, a team that would obviously be heavily interested in some added forward depth.

Some other notes, this time out of Montreal:

  • After leaving last night’s loss against Boston, Canadiens goalie Jake Allen will be out of the lineup for at least a week, per coach Dominique Ducharme. It’s been a really tough season for Allen, who’s faced injuries and COVID that have limited him to 24 games. He’s Montreal’s undisputed starter, still posting a save percentage above .900 on the worst team in the league. The team has a compressed schedule in the near future, meaning Allen could miss three or four games before he’s ready to dress again.
  • Montreal could be getting a name back from injury soon, though, as forward Paul Byron, who hasn’t played all year due to offseason hip surgery, could be cleared from COVID protocol by the weekend and could join the team on the road. Byron had six points in 22 games last year during Montreal’s playoff run. He’s one of the bigger voices in the room for the Habs, and his leadership presence will be greatly appreciated during this tough season.

Trade Rumors: Kessel, Hertl, Girard

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After months and months of speculation, the constant trade talk surrounding Jack Eichel is finally over after the star Buffalo Sabres center was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this month. So where does the trade market go from here? Though still early in the season, there is thought to be some trade chatter ongoing between teams who expected different results early on this year, whether that is a surprise contender looking to load up, a struggling preseason favorite in need of a shake-up, or a bottom-dweller looking to move talent as soon as possible to maximize the return. The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy and Matt Larkin recently broke down the trade market and believe the top available name could be the product of that latter scenario. The pair feel that Phil Kessel is set to step into Eichel’s shoes, not only as a major name on the block but also as a player that is guaranteed to be traded. The 1-13-1 Arizona Coyotes have all the makings of a last-place team and Kessel is an aging veteran and respected champion on an expiring deal; the fit is poor and should be resolved soon rather than waiting until the deadline whilst Kessel plays meaningless games and risks injury for the ’Yotes. The scoring winger should be attractive to any number of teams and Arizona could take the first impressive futures package offered to them to further their rebuild.

  • Though mentioned by Kennedy and Larkin as a top trade chip, piling on top of plenty of recent speculation, Tomas Hertl may not be as guaranteed to move as people have been led to believe. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes in a recent mailbag that Hertl seems be enjoying this season more than last. A winning record so far certainly helps, but Hertl is also appreciative of his growing role as a team leader amidst a culture turnaround in San Jose. Kurz believes that Hertl has a 50/50 chance of signing an extension with the Sharks, which doesn’t even speak to his likelihood of being traded. If the team continues to win and stays in the playoff picture all season and the possibility of a renewed deal between the two sides remains, Hertl may not move after all. There are some cap management factors working against a deal for both team and player, with the Sharks’ restrictions limiting Hertl’s contract potential and making such a move more risky for San Jose, but if the team is playing well and Hertl is happy, producing, and leading the young locker room, it will be difficult for the Sharks to opt for a trade instead of working toward an extension.
  • Meanwhile, Kennedy and Larkin do not mention Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard as top trade bait, but his name has been a fixture on the rumor mill in recent days. According to Mike Chambers of The Denver Post, the Avs made a late run at Eichel and floated Girard as the centerpiece of the deal. Now, even with Eichel off the market, Chambers believes that GM Joe Sakic is still willing to part ways with Girard. Though young and offensively gifted, Girard has some glaring defensive weaknesses that Colorado would rather not deal with given his $5MM cap hit. Girard is still an elite defenseman, but the well-balanced Avs are looking to use that cap space in a different way, if at all possible, by landing another elite forward. With phenom Cale Makar locked up long-term, a number of reliable veterans in support, and other promising young defenders like Bowen Byram and Justin Barron, the team could survive the loss of Girard if it means adding another difference-maker to their top-heavy forward corps. If the Avalanche continue to fall short of expectations this season, it will only serve to fuel a potential shake-up with Girard as the most likely trade victim.

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