Radko Gudas, Tomas Hertl To Miss World Cup
The injuries keep piling up for the Czech Republic in advance of the World Cup of Hockey as both Philadelphia defenseman Radko Gudas and San Jose forward Tomas Hertl will not play as first reported by hokej.cz’s Vaclav Jachin (link in Czech). Gudas is dealing with a wrist injury while Hertl still hasn’t recovered from the knee injury that forced him out of the lineup in the Stanley Cup Final back in June.
Gudas is coming off a strong first season with the Flyers where he provided the team with some grit on the back end. He played in 76 games, collecting 14 points while adding 116 PIMS, 304 hits, and 157 blocked shots. He also played in six postseason contests, being held pointless but he managed to average five hits per game. The 26 year old was rewarded with a four year extension this offseason with a cap hit of $3.35MM.
Philadelphia GM Ron Hextall released the following statement on the Flyers website about the injury:
“Radko Gudas sustained an upper body injury during his offseason training and will be evaluated on a week to week basis. We are hopeful and optimistic that he will not miss any regular season games.”
As for Hertl, he’s coming off the best season of his three year career, recording 21 goals and 25 assists in 81 regular season games for the Sharks. He continued his strong play in the postseason, picking up another 11 points in 20 games to give San Jose some secondary scoring. He inked a two year, $6MM bridge deal back in June.
No replacements have been named at this time. For now, it’s likely that Roman Cervenka, who has added to replace David Krejci yesterday, will move into a regular role with the Czech squad.
[Related: Updated Czech World Cup Roster]
San Jose Signs Tomas Hertl To Two-Year Deal
According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the San Jose Sharks have come to terms with pending RFA Tomas Hertl. He’ll receive a bridge deal worth $6MM total for the next two seasons. Pierre LeBrun, also of TSN, adds that Hertl will receive $2.8MM in 2016-17 and $3.2MM in 2017-18. The Sharks have almost no long-term deals up front, and this will allow them to stay flexible in the future.
Hertl has been an excellent performer for the Sharks through his first three seasons, racking up 102 points in 200 games. Last season he set career highs in goals (21), assists (25), plus/minus(+16), blocked shots (60) and at least partially moved back to his natural center ice position.
Going forward the 22-year old will continue to build towards becoming a legitimate top-line player for San Jose, as they prepare for life after Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. The two long-time Sharks (and potential Hall of Famers) are both headed into their final season under contract and are both 36 years old. Hertl represents the next wave of Shark and will try to seamlessly continue their regular season dominance, and perhaps change their (until recently) lackluster playoff performances.
Around The League: Coaching Vacancies, Goalies, Hertl, Datsyuk, Maatta
As we sit less than two weeks before the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, there are two head coaching vacancies that still need to be filled, Anaheim and Calgary. Elliotte Friedman’s latest 30 Thoughts column expanded on some of the likely candidates for each team. For the Ducks, Rick Bowness, former Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle, and Travis Green are under consideration while for the Flames, Glen Gulutzan and Mike Yeo have come up. Teams generally like to head their head coaches determined before the draft so it’s expected that these vacancies will be filled in the near future.
Elsewhere around the league:
- Bruce Garrioch discussed the potentially intriguing trade market for goaltenders in his latest Sunday column. He highlights a trio of goalies that could be of interest this offseason, Anaheim’s Frederik Andersen, Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury, and Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop. Andersen is a restricted free agent this offseason while Fleury and Bishop are under contract through 2018-19 and 2016-17 respectively. Each of those teams has a high potential young netminder that has made a case that they’re ready for a larger workload. Given that the free agent class is relatively light between the pipes and the potential for an expansion draft as soon as 2017-18, there’s a case to be made that those teams should be investigating what the trade market is for their veterans.
- San Jose winger Tomas Hertl will not play in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday night. Head coach Peter DeBoer noted that he’s “getting better every day”. Hertl has not been ruled out for a potential Game 7 on Wednesday night should the Sharks extend the series once again.
- Detroit GM Ken Holland was scheduled to meet with Pavel Datsyuk early this week but that meeting has been delayed due to the passing of Red Wings legend Gordie Howe. Datsyuk has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $7.5 million. It has been reported that the 37 year old would like to play in Russia next year but if he does so, his cap hit will not come off Detroit’s books.
- It won’t be a quiet offseason for Pittsburgh defenceman Olli Maatta. As soon as the Stanley Cup Final ends, he will return home to his native Finland to begin his mandatory military training which will span the next two offseasons.