Corey Masisak: Acting San Jose Sharks GM Joe Will said that he “certainly believes” that pending UFA forward Tomas Hertl wants to remain with the Sharks long-term.
Will said that the sides have talked about the parameters for an extension but he doesn’t want to get into those details.
Corey Masisak: Will on the idea of doing a sign-and-trade with Hertl: “Don’t have any interest in doing anything outside of just working on the negotiation and signing him.”
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: Will on Hertl: “So now it’s about finding a way to have that happen. He’s a player that we want as part of our team and we’re going to do everything we can to make that happen.”
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show on the latest involving Sharks pending UFA Tomas Hertl.
” Will gave a media conference yesterday, spoke to the local media there and he basically said that we had conversations and we want him to be here and he wants to be here and we’re going to try to do that.
The interesting question was, what if you don’t have him signed by the deadline? He said ‘look, I’m not going down the road. I’m just going to say we are trying to get him signed.’ So now we see what happens over the next six weeks. Can they get it done?
It’s a big number. We all know it’s going to be a big number. One of the things I’ve been told, that I forgot to put in the notes, was that I believe that, I don’t know the exact timing of the Evander Kane salary grievance is going to be, but I have been told that it’s supposed to happen at a point where the Sharks will know what they have to work with.
…. (for salary)
If there is an Evander Kane cap hit or not, they’re supposed to know about it well in advance of, doing all their business. But, you know what, I think that Joe Will has kind of thrown the gauntlet down here. He said, ‘Look, were engaged, we’ve started, we’re gonna get to work harder. We think we can keep him and now we’re going to go to it.’ And so, we see where it goes.
I know there have been teams that are hoping that they can get their hands on Hertl, at least as a rental for the rest of this season. But now we kind of see where this goes.
** NHLRumors.com transcription