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Tomas Hertl is entering the final season of his contract with the San Jose Sharks – and it could also turn out to be his final year with the team.
Hertl told Czech-based news outlet iDNES.cz that he wondered if the Sharks would want to re-sign him or if he’d want to stay with San Jose. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz had also noted that Hertl may have been unhappy with the team’s handling of the Evander Kane situation.
Hertl remains one of the team’s top players, scoring 19 goals and 43 points in 50 games with the team this past season, a pace of 31 goals and 71 points per 82 games. He’s spent his entire career with the Sharks so far, playing 503 career games with the team. However, given where the Sharks are as an organization, it would’ve made sense to look into potentially trading the forward, even before the recent reports.
Despite some additions in free agency, we can assume the Sharks won’t be overly competitive once again. There’s also no real plan to be competitive anytime soon, with too many long-term, overpriced contracts still on the books and a lack of cheap prospects to fill in the (many) gaps. From a player’s perspective, there’s really no incentive to re-sign with the Sharks and from the team’s perspective, the ideal option should be to get back some future assets for the forward. If Hertl isn't going to re-sign, it should be assumed that the Sharks would deal him before the trade deadline.
General manager Doug Wilson has clearly been hesitant to accept a rebuild but perhaps these recent reports could point to him looking into a deal for Hertl. At the very least, it seems clear that Hertl doesn’t know whether he’ll be back with the Sharks after his contract expires.
We’ll see how this plays out but it does seem as though there’s the potential that the two sides could be heading for a split.
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