Hertl jumps into the ‘elite centerman’ debate
Sharks are 15-5 since Hertle joined Donskoi and Kane
SAN JOSE >> The ghost of John Tavares isn’t haunting the San Jose area anymore. Tomas Hertl is putting that problem to rest.
As the Sharks head down the stretch run, the team is piling up points with the type of stacked center depth that general manager Doug Wilson envisioned last summer. But instead of creating mismatches with a center alignment that would have featured Tavares, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton, the Sharks are thriving under Plan B, or actually, Plan C.
Hertl is suddenly emerging as an “elite” centerman and it has helped the Sharks climb to the top of the Western Conference standings before Saturday’s game against Vancouver. For game details, go to mercurynews.com/ sharks.
“He’s found a whole new level here. He’s an elite player in the league, an elite centerman. Center is such a key position because they really drive the lines,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “We have the luxury now of Couture, Hertl and Joe Thornton in the middle.”
It isn’t a secret that the Sharks eyed Tavares last summer with the hopes of recreating the onetwo punch at the top of the lineup that Thornton and Couture provided for the better part of seven seasons. With Thornton approaching his 40th birthday and coming off two major-knee surgeries, acquiring Tavares in unrestricted free agency would have allowed the Sharks to reset their clock by a decade while bolster-
ing the third-line center position at the same time.
Instead, Tavares signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Sharks took a different route in acquiring a difference-making piece, landing Erik Karlsson in a trade with the Ottawa Senators. While the deal gave the Sharks the NHL’s most dynamic blue line since Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer joined forces with the Anaheim Ducks in 2006-07, the move left glaring questions about the team’s center depth.
Is Thornton still capable of creating mismatches in a top-six role? Is Joe Pavelski a viable option at center? Is Hertl ready for that responsibility?
DeBoer found the answer after the Christmas break when he reshuffled his lines to give Hertl, 25, an audition in that role, skating him with Evander Kane and Joonas Donskoi after Thornton and Pavelski’s look in that spot left him unsatisfied.
The Sharks are 15-5 with Hertl at center. Hertl has collected 14 goals and 24 points in those 20 games and already has career highs in goals (26), assists (27) and points (53).
“Everybody’s looking for (centermen). The key for every good team is depth down the middle of the ice,” DeBoer said. “Our record (with Hertl) at center speaks for itself.”
Though the Sharks drafted Hertl with the intention
of skating him at center, a confluence of variables delayed his arrival, starting with a string of knee injuries that hindered his development over the first four years of his career.
Then, when Hertl seemed poised to jump into the third-line center slot after a strong performance against the Edmonton Oilers in the 2017 playoffs, necessity forced him back onto the wing. DeBoer moved Hertl up Couture’s left wing just three games into the 2017-18 season after it became obvious that the line lacked scoring punch following Patrick Marleau’s offseason departure to Toronto.
“It wasn’t his play,” the Sharks coach explained. “We needed him with other people on the wing to support them.
“It’s been a winding path getting here between injuries and other things. But we’re here now and I don’t see that changing.”
The key to Hertl’s success at center lies in the hard game he has developed since overcoming his knee issues last season. Hertl is a power forward whose game is perfectly suited for the modern NHL. Though he’s listed at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, he moves well and possesses exceptional puck skills for a player his size, as evidenced by his infamous in-between-the-legs goal against the New York Rangers in his third NHL game on Oct. 10, 2013.
Right now, Hertl is winning matchups on a nightly basis against the top centers in the league. On Jan. 15, he recorded a hat trick against the Pittsburgh Penguins, seeing most of his ice time matched up against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He scored his first goal that night by brushing Malkin off his back like a black fly and then zig-zagging through the Penguins defense before going upper shelf, a play that triggered memories of his idol, Jaromir Jagr.
One week later, he recorded his second hat trick of the month against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals.
“He’s got the size, the strength, the subtle moves with the puck,” Couture said. “You saw it in that
game against Pittsburgh when he took it to Malkin.”
Hertl is certainly benefitting from skating alongside Kane, a power forward who moves around the ice like a speed skater. Together, they’re a handful for opponents below the goal line and off the rush. Add Donskoi to the mix — he’s another strong forechecker with puck skills — and suddenly the Sharks have one of the most-dynamic line combinations in the NHL.
“I think he’s an elite centerman, as well. Moving him into the middle gives us three elite centermen,” said Kane, who has 15 goals since Jan. 1. “It takes the pressure off Pavelski, who was playing in the middle before. He can play up top with Couture now. It balances out our lineup and gives us three good-scoring lines.”
The question now is whether Hertl can continue to give the Sharks that matchup edge down the stretch and into the playoffs. It’s one thing to tilt the ice during the regular season, creating those mismatches against the league’s bottom 20; doing it against the NHL’s mostelite centermen is an entirely different challenge.
“I want to be the one that matches up against those top centermen like Malkin and (Mark) Scheifele,” Hertl said. “I want to shut them down. I want to score against them. The last couple of months, it’s been working pretty well, but I know I still have some work to do to get better. Pete believes in me and I want to show him I can do it.”