San Jose forward Tomas Hertl suffered what the club’s calling a “minor” knee injury on Tuesday at prospect development camp, and may be held out of Wednesday night’s game, per the Mercury News.
Downplayed by Sharks GM Doug Wilson -- “minor tweak, just soreness from not skating,” is how he described it -- any issues involving Hertl’s knee are newsworthy, given his rookie campaign was cut in half after going knee-on-knee with Kings captain Dustin Brown in late December.
The collision forced Hertl, 20, to undergo surgery and miss 45 games as a result. The incident derailed what looked to be a Calder-worthy campaign -- prior to getting hurt, the Czech sniper had 15 goals and 10 assists in his first 35 games; upon returning, he had two goals and five points in seven games during San Jose’s opening round playoff collapse to the Kings.