*Photo from NBC Sports*
Big trades are all the rage right now. The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired C Tomas Hertl along with 3rd round draft picks in 2025 and 2027 from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forward David Edstrom and a 2025 first round pick, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie. The trade has been confirmed by both teams.
The Sharks are retaining 17 percent of Hertl's salary in the trade. Hertl is currently in year two of an 8 year, $65.1 million contract. With the retained salary, Vegas will pay $6.75 million annually instead of the just over $8 million total AAV. Hertl has a modified no trade clause and no movement clause for the remainder of the contract.
Hertl is in the middle of his 11th season with the Sharks, the only team he's ever played for. He has 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points, authoring a -26 rating while averaging 20:54 of ice time in 48 games for the Sharks. Hertl is currently recovering from left knee surgery.
Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon said that "My comments to Tomas were ‘Tomas, if you play as good with us, as you did against us, we’ll be happy.' He’s been a player that we had a tremendous regard for because he’s in the division. You know him because he’s a person who was a part of what was a tremendous rivalry. He’s going to be a really good fit for us."
Hertl ends his Sharks career high on the team's leaderboards. His 484 points rank 6th best in Sharks history. In the first round of the 2019 playoffs against the Golden Knights, Hertl scored the game winning goal in overtime of game 6. San Jose won the series despite trailing 3-1 after 4 games.
In return, the one player the Sharks receive is Edstrom, who was a first round pick of the Golden Knights in the 2023 draft. Edstrom has 6 goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 42 games for Frolunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League, the highest level league in Sweden.
San Jose GM Mike Grier said of the trade that "I don't know if there was a better return out there. There were some feelers put out about him, and we looked at the term and the money involved. It's not an easy contract, even with the cap going up, so I felt like this was a good time, and I think Tomas himself, thought this was a good opportunity for him."
The Sharks are one of the worst teams in hockey this season, as they are 15-40-7 with a .298 points percentage, better than only the Chicago Blackhawks. Vegas sits in 4th place in the Pacific Division with a 33-23-7 record and have also traded for Noah Hanifin and Anthony Mantha in the last few days.
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