San Jose Sharks place Tomas Hertl on injured reserve

The San Jose Sharks have placed forward Tomas Hertl on injured reserve, with Hertl set to undergo a procedure on his left knee.

The Sharks confirmed that Hertl is expected to miss “a minimum of several weeks” but didn’t have an exact timeline.

Hertl missed the team’s final two games before heading to the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. He last played in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 27, and has missed the team’s last two practices. Hertl has 15 goals and 34 points in 48 games, good for first in team scoring.

Drafted 17th overall by the Sharks in 2012, the 6-foot-3 forward is still on pace to crack the 50-point mark for the third season in a row, being one of the team’s few bright spots. He has six points in his last 10 games, including a two-point effort against the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 20.

The Sharks currently sit second last in the NHL with a 14-32-5 record with a .324 win percentage. The Sharks have a 13.5 percent chance of winning the draft lottery, with the Chicago Blackhawks retaining the top spot with a .298 points percentage.

With Hertl out, look for the Sharks to resume with a top line of Logan Couture, Mike Hoffman and Fabian Zetterlund, with William Eklund, Nico Sturm and Ryan Carpenter centering the team’s other three lines. Couture, however, is still listed as day-to-day after dealing with soreness from a previous injury.

According to CapFriendly, the Sharks have $2.258 million in projected cap space. The Sharks have five other players on injured reserve – Mikael Granlund, Mario Ferraro, Matt Benning, Henry Thrun and Givani Smith. The club has nobody on long-term injured reserve, but have $4.22 million tied in dead cap for Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson, as well as $3.225 million in buyouts for Martin Jones and Rudolfs Balcers.