San Jose Sharks
Projecting Hertl’s Next Contract
On Thursday, Sharks acting GM Joe Will intimated that the impending UFA wants to return to San Jose.
“The one thing we have in common is that Tomas loves being a Shark, and we love having Tomas here,” he said. “So now, it’s finding a way to have that happen.”
It’s going to get expensive: Tomas Hertl leads the Sharks with 22 goals, and is on pace for a career-high 39. It’s not an outlier either: Hertl scored 35 in 2018-19 and was on an 82-game pace for 31 last year. So he’s a 30-goal center who can handle first-line minutes (19:28 per game) and is a two-way force (1:18 SH per game).
Suffice to say, the 28-year-old isn’t a common player.
But we can look at three recent signings that give us a reasonable range for Tomas Hertl’s next contract.