Sharks Jump Their Hertl

The San Jose Sharks were working on their housecleaning before the free agency period officially opened up, inking trigger man forward Tomas Hertl to a new bridge deal, giving him a 2-year deal, reportedly worth $6 million.

Hertl, 22, was a key part of the Sharks' run to the Stanley Cup Finals and has managed to contribute adequately for a couple more years with the team.  In the regular season, the Czech finished with 21 goals and 46 points in 81 games, ranking 101st among all forwards in scoring.

With Hertl in tow, the Sharks have the better part of their core group that went deep into the playoffs, which should keep expectations for the coming season nice and high.

The lack of change in the Sharks' lineup, however, may limit the ceiling that Hertl has, in terms of his projections for next season, as I think he might level off in the 45-point range.  To me, he isn't quite the player that will take the team on his shoulders and lead by example, but he'll contribute at key times.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Joe Thornton	6.750	Brent Burns	5.760	Martin Jones	3.000
Patrick Marleau	6.667	Marc-Edouard Vlasic	4.250
Joe Pavelski	6.000	Justin Braun	3.800
Logan Couture	6.000	Paul Martin	4.850
Joel Ward	3.275
Tomas Hertl	3.000
Joonas Donskoi	0.925
Tommy Wingels	2.475	Brenden Dillon	3.270
Melker Karlsson	1.625
Chris Tierney	0.712
Timo Meier	0.894	Mirco Mueller	0.925	Mantas Armalis	0.925
Nikolay Goldobin	0.863	Jeremy Roy	0.858	Troy Grosenick	0.600
Danny O'Regan	0.859	Patrick McNally	0.800
Jon Martin	0.801	Michael Brodzinski	0.778
Kevin Labanc	0.718	Tim Heed	0.775
Alex Schoenborn	0.718	Julius Bergman	0.714
Adam Helewka	0.705	Joakim Ryan	0.680
Rourke Chartier	0.703
Nikita Jevpalovs	0.633
Barclay Goodrow	0.627

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, injured/retired cap hits, in the system