As part of my ongoing offseason series, I’m taking a look at the Sharks’ upcoming RFA’s. If you missed previous parts of the series, I looked at how the Sharks are going to deal with Paul Martin, if trading Mikkel Boedker’s contract is possible and what its effects could be, and the UFA’s the Sharks need to re-sign, which is a little outdated now because of the announcement on Thursday that the Sharks did indeed re-sign Evander Kane to a seven-year deal.

With that said, the Sharks still have three restricted free agents that they need to re-sign: Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney, and Dylan DeMelo. The Sharks are expected to re-sign all three; it’s just a matter of money.

Tomas Hertl

It cannot be understated just how good of a hockey player Tomas Hertl is. In 79 games this season, Hertl posted 22 goals and 24 assists and was a constant threat on the second line with Logan Couture. Peter DeBoer accepted that Hertl is best used as a winger on one of the top two lines, and Hertl flourished.

I pointed this out around the season’s halfway point, but Tomas Hertl might be the most snake-bitten player in the league. At all situations, Hertl’s individual expected goals for (ixGF) was 32.51, a difference of 10.5 goals for the Czech forward, the biggest difference between expected goals and actual goals in the league. To call a 22-goal scorer who shoots a reasonable 12.6% snake-bitten is an indictment of just how good Tomas Hertl is.

Matt Cane’s latest salary projections estimate Hertl’s next contract to be three years and worth $4,735,109 a year. Another projection by @EvolvingWild puts it at roughly $4.854 million a year. While the Sharks could sign Hertl to a longer deal, three years would make sense for Hertl because he would be an unrestricted free agent at the end of that deal and still in the prime of his career.

It’s clear that Tomas Hertl wants to stay in San Jose for the long-term future, and Hertl should only get better throughout the duration of his next deal. But the Sharks should have a couple concerns with Hertl moving forward, primarily dealing with his health. Ever since being injured in a knee-on-knee collision with Kings forward Dustin Brown in late 2013, Hertl hasn’t exactly had the best injury luck. The knee injury from the Brown hit forced Hertl to miss 43 games. Hertl suffered another knee injury during the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016 that required surgery before suffering another knee injury that required surgery the following season.

Fortunately, Hertl played in 79 games for the Sharks this season and missed one game combined between the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. And as Hertl proved this year, those past injuries haven’t prevented him from being a solid player in both ends of the ice. Players like Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Logan Couture get all of the attention, but Tomas Hertl should be regarded as one of the team’s best players. In a time where pure power forwards are rare, Hertl loves to throw his weight around, get into the corner to make plays, and win battles in front of the net.

Tomas Hertl is the type of player that the Sharks need to keep for the long-term future, and his deal this offseason should reflect that.

Chris Tierney

Entering the year, Chris Tierney needed to have a solid season for the Sharks. With his contract expiring and with organizational depth at the center position behind him, it seemed like Tierney might become expendable if he had a middling season.

At first glance, it seemed like Tierney had a solid season. After all, he did set career-highs in goals (17), assists (23), and of course points (40), with all but eight of them coming at even-strength. The playoffs, however, did not treat Tierney well, scoring only two points in 10 games and struggling against deeper teams.

And that’s kind of the story with Chris Tierney, at least so far. As the Sharks’ third-line center, Tierney has been average, at best. Against bad teams with poor center depth, Tierney flourishes, as evidenced by the fact that 27 of his 40 points came against teams who didn’t make the playoffs. But when the competition ramps up, Tierney just can’t match the talent and the intensity, even when he is flanked by Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc. This is held up by the fact that he didn’t break the 50% barrier in CF% at 5v5, though he did finish with a 50.06 xGF%.

However, it’s important to remember that Chris Tierney is just 23 years-old (he turns 24 on the first day of free agency), and he still has time to grow into the role of third-line center. He does have some raw skills and the occasional play that shows his good vision and raw playmaking skills. Still, there’s plenty of room to work on his game. No word on if he has figured out the piano on his back yet. Right now, he’s probably a high-end fourth-line center but has a ceiling of being a decent third-line center.

Cane’s projections have Tierney’s next contract at two years and roughly $2.1 million per year. It might be more likely that he would want a third year to take him to his UFA years when his contract expires. Still, a fair price tag for Tierney’s production so far and his limited upside moving forward.

Dylan DeMelo

The last of the Sharks’ restricted free agents, Dylan DeMelo finally got a full-time gig as an NHL defenseman after sitting behind former Sharks Matt Irwin, Matt Tennyson, Roman Polak, and David Schlemko for his entire time as a Shark. After spending the first month or so of the season in the press box when the Sharks decided to put Tim Heed on the third pairing, DeMelo finally got an opportunity to prove himself. Seen as a better defensive option than the more offensive-minded Heed, DeMelo would stay on the third pairing for almost the rest of the season. In 65 games, DeMelo did not score a goal, but he did have 20 assists with another assist coming in 10 playoff games.

DeMelo is a serviceable third-pairing defenseman; nothing more, nothing less. At 25 years-old, it’s unlikely that his game drastically improves. The Heed versus DeMelo is an interesting discussion, but it’s likely one that requires more icetime for Heed to have a definitive answer. The Sharks should still keep DeMelo, as having a decent cheap third-pairing defenseman is always a plus. The Sharks have certainly had worse depth defensemen than DeMelo (hello, Alexei Semenov).

Cane’s projections have DeMelo at two years and $1.18 million, still a worthy investment for the Sharks. Expect him to be back on the right side with Brendon Dillon come October.

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