Just hours after goalie Yaroslav Askarov won his fourth straight start for the San Jose Sharks’ top minor league affiliate, Tomas Hertl, a few hours later and about 10 miles away, was spearheading a third-period rally for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Askarov made 26 saves for the Barracuda in its 5-3 victory over the Henderson Silver Knights at Lee’s Family Forum on Friday, and Hertl, right next to the Las Vegas Strip, scored a game-tying third-period power-play goal for the Golden Knights, who came back to beat the Ottawa Senators 6-4.
“It wasn’t our best game,” Hertl told reporters as the Golden Knights improved to 5-2-1. “It wasn’t our best overall. We kind of struggled to get our game going. We had a couple of mistakes. You stay with it.
“Nobody asks how, but we just got two points.”
Less than eight months after the Sharks sent Hertl to the Golden Knights, both teams seemed to have gotten what they wanted from the shocking trade deadline day deal.
The Stanley Cup-contesting Golden Knights have an ideal top-six center in Hertl, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound specimen who can win faceoffs, log big minutes, and play in all situations.
Going into his first game against his former team Saturday, Hertl, healthy again, has eight points in eight games, including three goals and two assists in Vegas’ last two wins over Los Angeles and Ottawa.
From San Jose’s perspective, by trading Hertl, the rebuilding Sharks created over $40 million in cap space from now until 2030. They also used the assets from the Hertl trade to help acquire Askarov, who has come as advertised and could become the NHL team’s No. 1 goalie as soon as next season.
After his performance Friday, Askarov is 4-0 with two shutouts and a sparkling .954 save percentage for the Barracuda.
In other words, things seem to have worked out OK for both teams, although the present-day Sharks can hardly see that now after going 0-6-2 in their first eight games.
The Sharks roster has undergone extensive changes since Hertl’s last game with the team on Jan. 27. Only six players who dressed for that game against the Buffalo Sabres are on the Sharks’ active roster.
Nevertheless, Hertl said he doesn’t like seeing the team he spent over a decade with after they drafted him 17th overall in 2012 struggle out of the gate. On the Sharks’ all-time list, Hertl is seventh in games played (712), fifth in goals (218), and sixth in points (484).
“It’s tough,” Hertl said. “I saw what is happening there (with no wins). It’s not easy. Obviously, if we didn’t play today, I probably would be with a lot of guys for dinner, but I will probably see them (Saturday) after the game.
“But I just want to play a good game, have two points, and enjoy the talk after the game.”
In a deal weeks in the making before it was finalized on March 8, the Sharks sent Hertl and 2025 and 2027 third-round picks to Vegas in exchange for center David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round selection.
The Sharks then traded Edstrom and the Vegas first-round pick, plus goalie Magnus Chrona, to the Nashville Predators for Askarov, minor league forward Nolan Burke, and a 2025 third-round selection owned initially by the Colorado Avalanche.
Burke is now with the Sharks’ ECHL affiliate, the Wichita Thunder, and the Sharks have four picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft.
While looking forward to playing against the Sharks for the first time, Hertl also noted that Saturday’s game will be less emotional than when he and the Golden Knights visit San Jose on Dec. 27.
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Hertl started with the Sharks as a baby-faced 19-year-old and quickly endeared himself to the team’s fanbase with his raw talent and magnetic smile.
“When I arrived in San Jose in 2013, I was a 19-year-old boy who didn’t know anyone in America, didn’t speak a word of English, and had no idea where my career would take me,” Hertl wrote in a thank-you letter to the Sharks and their fans three days after the trade.
“San Jose didn’t just accept me — it opened its arms wide and treated me like one of its own. This is where I call home. It’s the place I made friends, built my career, married my wife, bought a house, and became a father to my two boys.”
The cheapest tickets for that game at the moment are around $80.
“Yeah, obviously, I’m looking forward to it,” Hertl told reporters Friday. “It’ll probably be different, still, when we play here, then in San Jose eventually.
“But I was there 11 years, so it’s a long time.”
