Sharks Tomas Hertl to miss significant time after having surgery on his left knee

The San Jose Sharks are still yet to see all four of their centers take to the ice in the same game this season. Logan Couture missed the first half of the year with a lower body injury, and before he returned, Mikael Granlund was missing with an injury of his own. Nico Sturm missed prolonged time too, but he's back, and everything was looking good for the Sharks to finally get healthy, but as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet likes to say "you plan, god laughs".

Tomas Hertl, the Sharks leading scorer on the season with 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points in 48 games, is going to miss at least several weeks after having surgery to clear up some loose cartilage in his knee cleaned up. There's no timetable for his return, and he played through this for a long period of time, and even attended the all-star game in spite of this. He should be 100% for the start of next season if nothing else.

Losing an alternate captain so soon after getting the captain back is not fun. Hertl did a great job of trying to fill the void while Couture was on the shelf getting back to 100% himself. Now, the Sharks are losing the Prague, Czechia native. This is already one of the longest seasons the organization has had to suffer through, and this just seems to add to that suffering. That said, Hertl's health has to be the top priority in this situation.

One of the nice side affects of this is that the Sharks are more likely to lose games moving forward, which will continue to improve their draft positioning. They know that the goal of this season is Macklin Celebrini and getting him would be a great addition to the future of this hockey club. This will help the Sharks ensure they can get the best odds at that pick, but there is a long way to go between now and the end of this season.