This article will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll look at each player on the San Jose Sharks and assess how their season went. This article will focus on Tomas Hertl.
Hertl had a strong season for San Jose, scoring 16 goals and 36 points in 48 games this season before suffering a season-ending knee injury, a rate of 27 goals and 62 points per 82 games. He averaged 18:27 per game, including 2:35 per game on the power play and 1:27 per game on the penalty kill.
He had had a corsi for percentage of 53.1 per cent, which was quite a bit stronger than the team’s overall corsi for percentage of 50.7 per cent. He also had a very strong expected goals for percentage of 56.8 per cent, which was the highest of any player who played at least 15 games with the Sharks this season (according to NaturalStatTrick.com), and he was great in the faceoff dot, winning nearly 55 per cent of draws this season.
That said, Hertl’s production has been a bit all over the map in the last few seasons. Here are his goals, points and shots per 82 averages, as well as his shooting percentage for each of the last four seasons:
I wouldn’t expect Hertl to hit a pace of 35 goals and 75 points again like he did in 2018-19, as that shooting percentage of nearly 20 per cent is going to be almost impossible to repeat. That said, I think he’s solidified himself as a quality producer in the top-six and isn’t likely to fall below 50 points per year. It’s probably more likely we see him to score around 25 goals and 60-65 points per season going forward.
This was another strong season for Hertl before his injury and next year, the Sharks will need him to be one of their top scorers once again, in order to fight their way back to the playoffs.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
How many points do you expect Tomas Hertl to score next season?
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