Tomas Hertl heard. But he wishes he hadn’t.
Last week, TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported that general manager Mike Grier was “willing to listen” on every Sharks player not named Hertl. Now some people would be happy if they heard they were the only one whom the boss wanted to keep around.
Not Hertl.
“I don't really, honestly, want to think about it. We're like family here. We're all together,” Hertl told San Jose Hockey Now. “[You] just get so close with all the guys. We’re like friends, family all together.”
Take, for example, Halloween night, when the Hertls got together with the Simeks, Karlssons, Bennings and Megnas for trick-or-treating.
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But Hertl knows the Sharks are 3-8-1. He knows the only people who can change Grier’s direction are in San Jose’s locker room. He knows he has scored only one goal this season. He knows more is expected of him after he signed an eight-year, $65.1 million contract extension last season.
“We have to play our best hockey that we can together. We have to help each other,” the alternate captain emphasized. “We have to help each other so we can stay together.”
This trade rumor is just another bit of pressure on Hertl, who has shouldered plenty this young season.
“Don't underestimate the trip to Europe on him in particular, the pressure he faced,” Sharks coach David Quinn said of Hertl’s return to his native Prague to open the season. “He's such an incredibly big-hearted person. I think it weighed on him a little bit.”
And while Hertl hasn’t scored since opening night, he still has been a key offensive contributor, notching seven assists in his last seven games.
“He's definitely playing with more confidence,” Quinn said of his top centerman.
When the Sharks re-signed Hertl last March, it signaled they weren't rebuilding and that it would build around the 28-year-old in the coming years. How they’re going to go about that isn’t clear: The organization isn’t stacked with high-end, ready-for-the-NHL youngsters or in-their-prime stars.
In training camp, however, Hertl professed some patience with the process.
“Everybody [is looking for us to be] out for a long time, but I don't think so,” Hertl said then. “Maybe if it takes a year or two, I'm still ready for that.”
Despite the Sharks’ slow start, Hertl still believes in the second-to-last-in-the-Pacific group.
“We played some of the best teams in the NHL [last week] and we played our best hockey. We should’ve at least got four points,” Hertl said of a competitive three-game stretch against the Vegas Golden Knights, Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning in which the Sharks earned only one victory. “We showed we can play against top teams.”
A few more goals from Hertl certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause, and history suggests they’re coming. The big centerman has been known to score in bunches, but it’s also not unusual for him to endure protracted slumps. In every season of his career, Hertl has had at least one eight-games-or-longer goalless streak.
San Jose Sharks
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So, Quinn isn’t worried about 11 games and counting without a goal for Hertl: “By the end of the season, he's going to have a very good year.”
But will the Sharks? And who’s still going to be in the room with Hertl after the March 3 NHL trade deadline?