One week into the 2013-14 NHL season, your scoring leader is not Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos or anyone else selected in rounds 1 through 12 of your fantasy pool. Instead, it’s a 19-year-old Czech rookie that 16 teams took a pass on at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
Tomas Hertl lives in a San Jose hotel and doesn’t speak much English yet — “This is dream,” the kid said after scoring four goals in 11 minutes of ice time in just his third NHL contest. “No reality” — but his early-season play is screaming at high volume.
Through his first three games with the Sharks, all Hertl did was jump into a top-six role on a line with Joe Thornton and Brent Burns after Raffi Torres went down with injury, score six goals and seven points (both league highs), be a plus-5 on the ice (second best in the league), and stun New York Rangers goaltender Martin Biron by roofing a between-the-legs circus shot that could well go down as the greatest goal of the year.
“We have high expectations for him, but we want him to earn his own equity with his teammates and his coaching staff with his own play, and he’s certainly done a very good job of that,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson told sportsnet.ca, mere hours before Hertl’s four-goal coming-out party Tuesday.
If Hertl was on a nine-day tryout to stick in the big league, he probably only needed two games to solidify a roster spot on the Sharks and three to be gobbled up by the poolie who woke up earliest in your fantasy league. Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl is his new American nickname.
Watch: Tomas Hertl’s postgame interview after his four-goal performance:
“I’ve been here 20 years,” Sharks analyst Drew Remenda told Hockey Central @ Noon Wednesday. “I’ve never seen a performance like that.”
Like young, impressive Sharks draftees Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski before him, Hertl’s all-around approach to the game matters most to the Sharks’ staff.
“He’s a pretty well-rounded player. He plays in all three zones. He’s defensively aware, he’s got the sense to play with some high-end players,” said Wilson, who has to squint to spot a weakness in Hertl’s game. “Right now, it’s more just knowledge, as you go around the league and get familiar with players you’re playing against. If you look at the Coutures and Pavelskis — that’s what we’re looking for in our players.”
Wilson was impressed by the teen’s performance both in the world juniors and in his native Czech Elite League, where he scored 55 points in 81 games the last two seasons. The Sharks had plumbed the Czech Republic for talent before, most notably drafting five-time 20-goal scorer Milan Michalek in 2003.
“When you’re going to use a first-round pick, you want to have viewings, so I have DVDs of all his games,” Wilson says of Hertl.
Going into the 2012 draft, Hertl was the guy Wilson wanted. They weren’t exactly shocked the fifth-ranked European skater was skill kicking around the 17th-overall slot, but he sure was pleased.
“Historically we’ve moved up to get people we wanted, such as Logan Couture. And we even discussed moving up to get him. He was certainly the guy we wanted, and we feel very fortunate to have gotten him at the 17 spot,” Wilson said.
As younger Sharks come up through the system, Wilson explained, the club’s core veterans — namely Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle — “go the extra mile” to make them feel at home, even if home is an ocean and a language away. With nothing in stone, Hertl is living at a hotel with young goaltender Alex Stalock and California native Matthew Nieto, who quietly has three points in the Sharks’ three victories himself.
“But it starts at the top with Joe Thornton and Patty and Boyler in particular, as well as Pavie and Logan — they make sure they make young guys feel like they’re a part of it. I think Tomas feels very comfortable here,” Wilson said.
Despite Hertl’s four-goal show and a dressing-room stall full of secondhand hats, Wilson insisted the kid is not a one-dimensional player.
“That’s what’s really attractive about him. He’s as good in the defensive zone when the game is on the line as he is in the offensive zone,” Wilson said, “and he’s earned a lot of respect from his coaches and teammates because of how he views the game.”
Four fun facts from Hertl’s four-goal game:
- Hertl’s four goals tie Owen Nolan (1995) for most goals in a game by a Shark
- Hertl is the youngest player to score four goals in game since Jimmy Carson did so in 1988 with the Los Angeles Kings; he’s the fourth-youngest ever to accomplish the feat
- Hertl’s four goals came during a 22:46 span between the second and third periods, marking the fastest individual four-goal performance in franchise history
- Hertl (19 years, 330 days) is the second-youngest player in Sharks history to record a hat trick (Jeff Friesen: 19 years, 228 days)