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Tomas Hertl

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.

Snapshots: Extensions, Varlamov, Francouz

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As is human nature, the 2021-22 season has not even started and discussion of the 2022 off-season has already begun. Tracking the impending free agent class, whose numbers inevitably decrease each year, is part of every season. Some will sign extensions soon, others will wait and see how the season progresses, and others are bound for the open market (and possibly the rental trade market beforehand). Pierre LeBrun writes for The Athletic that some of the biggest names among potential 2022 UFA’s are unlikely to become available. In fact, he believes the prize of the market, Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, has quietly been making steady progress on a new deal and could sign soon. LeBrun also reports that the Dallas Stars and John Klingberg are having “good and constant dialogue” on an extension while, unsurprisingly, future Hall of Famer Patrice Bergeron will have the deal of his choosing from the Boston Bruins if he feels healthy this season and decides to extend his career. Less certain are the futures of Tomas Hertl and Morgan Rielly, who could be the top targets on the free agent market if they don’t re-sign with their current teams. The San Jose Sharks are still hopeful they can re-sign Hertl, but that could very well depend on their success this season and whether a continued relationship makes sense, especially if Hertl could be a trade deadline gold mine. LeBrun feels Hertl’s days in San Jose are numbered. Barring an unforeseen disaster, Rielly will remain with the Toronto Maple Leafs all year, but the team will have to do some serious work early next summer in order to clear the cap space for an extension. LeBrun does not expect a resolution, one way or another, until after the season. Pittsburgh Penguins veterans Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are expiring contracts whose futures are still too early to call, among many others across the league including restricted free agents as well. There will plenty to watch, as usual, over the course of the coming season.

  • The New York Islanders are already facing some concerns in net. The team was taking a risky approach to their net depth as is by entering the season with cold veterans Cory Schneider and Ken Appleby as the backups to their NHL tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov. They may now be forced to call upon one of the two right away, as Newsday’s Andrew Gross reports that Varlamov will not play in either of the Isles’ final two preseason games and is unlikely to be available for opening night, per head coach Barry Trotz. Schneider and Appleby played a combined nine games last season, all with AHL Bridgeport. Appleby has not played an NHL game since 2017-18 and Schneider has a .903 save percentage and 3.07 GAA over his last 79 NHL appearances. If the Islanders need to rely on either at the NHL level for an extended period of time this season, it could mean trouble. New York is hoping Varlamov can get back to action soon.
  • The Colorado Avalanche dealt with their own goaltending depth problems last season when backup Pavel Francouz was lost for the year. While Philipp Grubauer was a workhorse for Colorado, the absence of an established understudy led to young Hunter Miska receiving NHL experience and eventually the acquisition of Jonas Johansson, who performed well late in the year. Fortunately for the Avs both are back this season, as Francouz is already back in the injury spotlight. Francouz suffered a lower-body injury in Tuesday night’s preseason game, reports Colorado Hockey Now’s Scott MacDonald. While head coach Jared Bednar denied that the issue was related to Francouz’s 2020-21 issues, it is hard to feel confident about the veteran goaltender playing on two surgically-repaired hips when he is already experiencing another injury. There is expected to be an update on Francouz’s condition later this week. Johansson would be the next man up if Francouz is unable to start the season, though new starter Darcy Kuemper is capable of being a workhorse himself if need be.

Latest On Sharks’ Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl

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Between the ongoing investigation into Evander Kane and the trade rumors swirling around Tomas Hertl, it seemed that potentially neither would be back with the San Jose Sharks this season. Add in that Hertl is believed to be one of the Sharks’ core members who was upset with Kane’s presence in the locker room last year and did not want him to return, it certainly did not seem that both would be back in 2021-22. Yet, it is growing increasingly more likely that this in fact will be the case.

Kane tells ESPN’s Linda Cohn that he expects the NHL’s current investigation into allegations that he bet on NHL games, and Sharks games in particular, to go nowhere. Kane states that these allegations were entirely fabricated by his estranged wife during the course of an ugly and public divorce:

Obviously (the accusations are) incredibly false. It’s unfortunate that transpired, and it’s unfortunate that those false allegations were made. I understood the magnitude of them immediately. I know (they’re) not true. I know none of what she was saying was true. I was very confident, comfortable with knowing that I was going to be exonerated and am going to be exonerated of those allegations.

While Kane’s investigation is far from his only off-ice concern – bankruptcy case, gambling addiction, and other unsavory allegations – it is seemingly the only grounds that the NHL would have to suspend him or San Jose would have to terminate his contract. And while the Sharks could explore trading Kane, it would be difficult to move his baggage an an extremely no-trade clause does not help. If Kane is cleared, it seems likely that he will be back with the Sharks this season.

Unless that fact itself is the final straw for Hertl, he too seems to be heading back to San Jose to begin the season. Speaking to NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, Hertl stated that he not only expects to attend training camp and open the year with the Sharks, but he is open to extension talks as well. Of course, it seems more likely than not that Hertl heads elsewhere as a free agent next summer, if not via trade sooner, but he will not be requesting a trade out of San Jose; quite the contrary, in fact. Hertl is looking to take on more of a leadership role with the Sharks this season to fill the gap of departed veterans like Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Pavelski. Hertl clearly cares about locker room chemistry and still seems to be thinking only of the present in San Jose and not his future. Will he remain as focused if the locker room he is trying to lead includes Kane though? That could be the big question for the Sharks early this season: can the two co-exist and, if not, which one is moved first?

Snapshots: Hertl, Penguins, Forsberg

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Tomas Hertl’s comments earlier this month which expressed some uncertainty about his long-term future with the team have thrust him into trade speculation.  For the time being, it seems likely he’ll start the season and he and the Sharks will re-assess things from there.  However, if San Jose opted to trade him, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic examined (subscription link) what the framework of a potential deal might look like.  He suggests that San Jose’s preference likely wouldn’t just be draft picks but that adding a top prospect that’s a little closer to being NHL-ready – one that fits the timeline of their recent top selections – would likely be a goal for GM Doug Wilson.  Hertl carries a $5.625MM AAV for this coming season and stands to earn considerably more on his next contract and if they opt to set that high of a price point whenever the decision is made to move on, an extension may need to be part of the trade in order to justify the higher acquisition cost for the other team.

More from around the NHL:

  • While the Penguins haven’t had much playoff success as of late, team president Brian Burke told Sportsnet’s Eric Francis that he doesn’t feel the time is right to rebuild yet. Pittsburgh wasn’t able to add much to their roster this summer – Brock McGinn was their biggest acquisition – but he feels the core is still good enough to contend.  With both Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang set to become unrestricted free agents next summer, that will be the key time for a decision to be made on whether this core can still contend or it’s time to change things up.
  • Matt Porter of The Boston Globe posits that the Predators should consider trading winger Filip Forsberg. The 27-year-old is entering the final year of his contract and with Nashville heading into what appears to be some form of a rebuild, extending him would go against that direction and take away some potential assets to add to their future core.  Forsberg carries a $6MM AAV without any form of trade protection which would give the Preds some extra flexibility to find him a new home if they decide to go that route at some point during the season.

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