It’ll take some time for longtime followers of the San Jose Sharks to get used to seeing Tomas Hertl in a Vegas Golden Knights jersey.
The white gloves, the gold sparkles on the jerseys, perhaps the reflective golden dome helmet at some point – it’ll all be a bit jarring and a radical departure from the teal jersey Hertl wore for 10-plus seasons in San Jose.
One month after the Sharks traded him to the Golden Knights in a shocking deadline-day deal, Hertl made his debut for San Jose’s once-fierce rival on Monday and collected an assist as Vegas lost 4-3 to the Vancouver Canucks.
Hertl last played on Jan. 27 when the Sharks lost 5-2 to the Buffalo Sabres. He missed the Sharks’ final two games in January with a knee ailment before representing the team at the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto.
By that time, the wheels for a trade were already in motion. San Jose would send Hertl and third-round draft picks in 2025 and 2027 to Vegas for prospect forward David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round pick. The Sharks also retained 17% of Hertl’s $8.14 million annual salary.
Everybody would get involved from the Sharks standpoint – owner Hasso Plattner, team president Jonathan Becher, and Hertl himself, as he owns a full no-movement clause in his contract.
“It was tough to leave San Jose, but I couldn’t say no because I’m now in my 30s,” Hertl said on March 12.
Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said last month that of the three deadline deals the team made, “this was the one that definitely took the longest in terms of the commitment of time and different areas that had to be addressed.”
A month later, here are five things to note about the trade.
THE BEST DEAL?: Sharks general manager Mike Grier was asked on March 8 whether a bigger return might have been out there if he had held onto Hertl until the offseason, when more teams might have shown interest, and the price tag for the centerman could have potentially been driven up.
Grier flatly rejected that notion.
“One, I don’t think there’s a better return out there than what we got,” Grier said. “Two, there were some feelers put out about it. You look at the term and the money involved, it’s not an easy contract. Even with the cap going up, it’s not an easy contract for teams to take on.
“We felt like this was a good time, and I think Tomas himself thought that it was a good opportunity for him.”
It’s never a good idea to judge a trade right away. Sometimes deals take years to fully evaluate. From the Sharks’ perspective, a lot will depend on how Edstrom develops.
If he can become a steady and productive top-six center for the Sharks in a few years, when Hertl is well into his 30s and perhaps on the decline, then the trade will look good. But top-line centers are hard to come by.
As for the draft pick, it’s possible the Sharks only moved up 40 or so spots in the 2025 draft. The team expects to improve next season, but a playoff appearance is probably unlikely. If the Sharks finish sixth from the bottom, and the Golden Knights make the second round of the playoffs and are 25th in the draft order, then the Sharks would have moved up 45 spots in the draft.
But that’s just speculation. It’s difficult to give the trade a passing or failing grade right now. Time will tell.
As for dealing Hertl to Vegas?
“That crossed my mind and was brought up in our discussions internally with our group here and the management group,” Grier said. “It definitely came up, and I tried to see if I could get a clause in there where he wasn’t allowed to play against us for six years.”
ARE FUTURE DEALS HAMPERED?: Retaining some of Hertl’s cap hit means the Sharks cannot keep another player’s salary on their books in a trade before July 2025. We’ll see how that complicates things at next year’s trade deadline should the Sharks decide to move on from then-pending UFAs like Mikael Granlund, Jan Rutta, Mackenzie Blackwood, and Nico Sturm.
The Sharks and their potential trade partner could also involve a third team to reduce a player’s cap hit. That could come in handy with someone like Granlund, whose contract carries an average annual value of $5 million. Might that also lessen the return for Granlund, who will turn 33 next February? We’ll see.
LEADERSHIP VOID?: If the Sharks trade Granlund, Rutta, and Sturm next season, might that leave a lack of leaders in the room? Certainly, the Sharks hope captain Logan Couture can return to full health, but even Couture has said he’s unsure what the future might hold.
Luke Kunin, another player who has emerged as a leader, is a pending RFA who could be a UFA in 2025. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Mario Ferraro’s contracts expire in 2026.
Some might disagree, but ideally, when the organization’s top prospects reach the NHL, it would be nice if a few of the longest-tenured players were still around to show everyone what it means to be a Shark. The team has to have some adults in the room, and not just veterans who might be acquired In the next year or two, only to be sent off in a couple of years.
Grier and Sharks coach David Quinn were highly complementary of Hertl’s leadership during another trying season. Replacing that isn’t easy.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – JUNE 28: David Edstrom speaks to the media after being selected by the Vegas Golden Knights with the 32nd overall pick during round one of the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena on June 28, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
EDSTROM UPSIDE?: The Sharks are obviously excited about the 6-foot-2 Edstrom, who turned 19 in February and had 19 points in 44 regular season games this season for Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League. Frolunda is now in the semifinals of the SHL playoffs.
There’s perhaps no one dynamic element to Edstrom’s game, Sportsnet draft analyst Sam Cosentino said, but he does several things very well.
“If he goes into the National Hockey League and he doesn’t produce, then this guy can end up being a matchup type guy where he can play against the opposition’s best, he can play the penalty kill, He’s a (second power play guy),” Cosentino told this news organization last month. “So in terms of his basement, his basement is high. But I also think the ceiling is really high, so the fact that he has a ‘B’ game is something that I really like about this guy.”
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WHAT TO DO WITH THE EXTRA MONEY?: The Sharks did clear $6.75 million off their books for the next six years with the Hertl trade and now have about $38 million in cap space available for next season, per CapFriendly.
While the Sharks might not be big spenders this offseason, they might loosen the purse strings a little more in 2025 or 2026 — or make another big move — to get themselves back into a more competitive position.
“We feel good about it, and along with the picks, the prospects we have, and the financial flexibility this deal gives us allows us to possibly flip this even quicker,” Grier said. “We can get into maybe things we couldn’t get into as far as the trade market or free agency.
“At the same time, you almost go back a little bit to the Joe Thornton trade here, right? Where you have the assets, you have the prospects, the players, to go in there and maybe get a player who becomes available, that if we didn’t have these assets, we wouldn’t be able to get in on. It opens up some doors for us down the road. If things happen and players become available, we feel like we’ll be able to get them.”
