What I’m Hearing About Hertl | SJHN+

Since 2016, the San Jose Sharks have signed six players to contracts five years or longer in length: Erik Karlsson in 2019, Logan Couture and Evander Kane in 2018, Martin Jones and Marc-Edouard Vlasic in 2017, and Brent Burns in 2016.

Will 27-year-old Tomas Hertl, entering his UFA walk year, join this select company?

If so, Hertl’s already missed one important date.

Couture, on the first day he was up for an extension on Jul. 1, 2018, agreed to an eight-year, $64 million dollar contract. Same for Martin Jones and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who both inked long-term extensions on Jul. 1, 2017. Even Karlsson and Kane, both new to the Sharks during their walk campaigns, committed to the San Jose Sharks before the beginning of free agency.

Hertl’s situation is more similar to Couture, Jones, and Vlasic’s, insofar as they were Sharks before their UFA seasons. The organization identified these players as long-term fits — and the players dedicated themselves in kind to the city of San Jose on the first day possible.

But who cares about that, right? Hertl doesn’t need a new contract with the San Jose Sharks in July 2021 — he needs one by October 2022. That’s still more than a year away.

Remember too that Burns was eligible for an extension in July 2016 and didn’t sign until November that year.

But that said, the silence around a Hertl extension is intriguing.