Tomas Hertl’s Gamble on Leaving the Sharks Is Paying Off

Sometimes loyalty to one franchise costs players championships. Tomas Hertl knew it in 2024, as he, alongside the Sharks, missed the playoffs for the fifth-consecutive season. He had given the franchise 11 seasons, the only franchise he ever played for, and it was becoming clear that if he wanted to win the Stanley Cup, Hertl needed to leave San Jose.

So on March 8, 2024, Hertl waived his no-move clause and made his way to Vegas, taking a bet to win the only thing that remained to be won. Two years later, he is four wins away from proving that he was right.

He had 484 points in 712 games with the Sharks, ranking sixth all-time in franchise scoring. He was drafted 17th overall in 2012, grew into one of the team’s most beloved players, started a family in the Bay Area, and signed an eight-year, $65.1 million extension in 2022 that signaled he intended to see the rebuild through.

But by the time the trade with the Golden Knights knocked on his door, he was becoming the face of a franchise that simply couldn’t crack the postseason. At 30, his window for potentially making a deep playoff run was running out of time, and Hertl was forced to make a call to open the window again.

A Bet That Took Time to Pay Off

Nobody who knew him had Hertl on their radar as player who’d be moved at the 2024 Trade Deadline . But Sharks owner Hasso Plattner later revealed it was Hertl himself who pushed for it. “When Tomas came and said, ‘Hasso, please let me go. I played 10 years for the San Jose Sharks. I did everything possible. I got three knee injuries. If I get one more, I’m done. I have only so many years. Let me go to a team where I have a chance to win this goddamn Cup,'” Plattner said in an interview with San Jose Hockey Now.

It did not pay off immediately. Hertl arrived in Vegas still recovering from knee surgery and played just seven regular-season games before the playoffs began. The Golden Knights were eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by the Dallas Stars. The following season, they went further, winning the Pacific Division before losing to the Edmonton Oilers in five games in the second round.

Two playoff runs, two early exits. For a man who had uprooted his life and family to chase a championship, it was a difficult pill to swallow. “I remember when I lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 Final, I was obviously sad, but I thought I’d probably be back in two or three years,” Hertl told NHL.com last week.

He continued, “Over the years, you figure out how hard it is to get there, and how lucky I am to be again in the Final.” That perspective matters. Hertl reached the Stanley Cup Final with the Sharks in 2016, only to lose to Pittsburgh. It took him a decade to get back. The failed runs in 2024 and 2025 could have broken the faith. Instead, they seem to have sharpened it.

Finding His Footing in Vegas

This season, Hertl looked like a man who belongs. In his two full seasons with the Golden Knights, he has 119 points in 155 games. This season, he posted 58 points (24 goals, 34 assists) across 82 regular-season games, while serving as Vegas’ third-line center.

He battled through a 29-game goalless drought that stretched across the end of the regular season and into the early rounds of the playoffs, a slump that tested his confidence publicly. He came out the other side. Hertl has scored three times in the last six games after that lengthy stretch without a goal.

His go-ahead goal in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against the Colorado Avalanche, off a bump pass from Mark Stone, helped put Vegas on a path to a four-game sweep. He currently stands on the brink of glory with nine points in 16 games, with all three of his goals coming in the final seven contests.

The personal connections have helped too. Golden Knights assistant coach Joel Ward, a former Sharks forward, helped Hertl settle into his new team, while captain Stone, the only player Hertl has ever fought in the NHL, became one of his closest friends in the organization. The transition that looked so jarring from the outside appears to have been seamless from within.

What It Means for San Jose

The Sharks got a strong return in the Hertl trade. San Jose received a 2025 first-round pick and prospect David Edstrom, while retaining 17% of Hertl’s salary. That first-round pick became the 30th overall selection in 2025—Joshua Ravensbergen, now one of the more intriguing goaltending prospects in the organization. The deal was defensible then and remains so now.

But watching Hertl inch toward the Cup does sting in a particular way for the San Jose fanbase. Plattner himself admitted he regretted letting Hertl go. The 32-year-old is no longer a Shark, but the career he built in teal, those 218 goals, those playoff battles, and that four-goal game as a teenager against the New York Rangers, is woven permanently into the franchise’s history.

“I definitely didn’t expect I could ever play in Vegas,” Hertl said. “But now I’m here, super excited. The team organization is just awesome. In my past two-and-a-half years here, I have had so much fun.” The gamble was always going to be judged by one outcome.

The Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes starts tonight. Four wins. After 11 years in San Jose, two failed playoff runs in Vegas, three knee surgeries, and a decade since his last Final appearance, Hertl is right where he asked to be. The Golden Knights are on the brink of glory.