Steve Marcus
Vegas Golden Knights players celebrate a goal by Tomas Hertl during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena Friday, April 12,2024.
By Case Keefer (contact)
Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Tomáš Hertl reported to Las Vegas quickly after the San Jose Sharks traded him to the Golden Knights on March 8, but his family didn’t join him right away.
The 30-year-old, two-time All Star’s wife and two young sons didn’t come to town until he was done rehabbing from knee surgery in mid-April. The first game they attended at T-Mobile Arena was Hertl’s third outing as a Golden Knight, an April 12 date with the Minnesota Wild, and it didn’t go smoothly.
Well, it was perfect in the fact that they were there for Hertl’s first goal with his new team, but the crazed crowd reaction wasn’t the best for 1-year-old Theo. The Golden Knights scored seven goals to electrify the crowd—and maybe terrify Theo.
“It was a little too loud for him,” Hertl explained. “He’s not used to it. He has headphones but he’s too young for it.”
The Hertls may want to invest in heavier-duty headphones or find a more insulated suite at the arena because it looks like their patriarch is going to frenzy his new home crowd for years to come—especially during this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In short order, Hertl is well on the way to holding the same fan-favorite role in Vegas as he did in San Jose.
He managed five points in his first eight games with the Golden Knights including a pair of huge goals, and helped revitalize what had been a floundering power-play unit. Hertl completed the Golden Knights’ comeback from a three-goal deficit against the Colorado Avalanche two days after the Wild victory with an overtime power-play game-winner.
Then, in Vegas’ opening game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Dallas this week, he bullied his way to the front of the net and buried a putback on a power-play as part of the Golden Knights’ 4-3 win. The eighth-seeded Golden Knights led the top-seeded Stars 1-0 in the best-of-seven series at publication time.
The scoring burden always figured to primarily fall on Vegas stars Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault if the Golden Knights hoped to defend their Stanley Cup title. But Hertl is now categorically among the top group the team can lean on, the collection of players who will ultimately determine the fate of any repeat trophy hopes.
“He’s built for games like that,” Marchessault said of Hertl after the Game 1 win.
The only thing more infectious than Hertl’s play since joining the Golden Knights has been his attitude. Behind the captain Stone’s leadership and Marchessault’s never-ending chirpiness, the Golden Knights have long been one of the more spirited teams in the NHL.
But Hertl has brought it up a notch with his ever-present smile and bubbly personality. The Prague, Czech Republic native’s love for hockey is ever-present, and teammates have marveled that they’ve never been around someone as permanently positive.
“Fun is always, right?” coach Bruce Cassidy joked when asked about Hertl’s temperament. “People should catch up on that.”
Cassidy was referring to a line that’s become Hertl’s catchphrase during his decade in the NHL—“fun must be always.” It started when he was rookie with the Sharks and tweeted a picture of him at the end of a water aerobics class as part of his recovery from an injury.
Surrounded by an elderly classmates, Hertl beamed as always.
“Today after exercise,” the post read. “I have a lot of new young friends … Fun must be alwalys (sic).”
Hertl loves that the four-word slogan has stuck with him throughout his career, and even mentioned his desire for it to carry over to Vegas in an introductory interview published on the team’s website.
“I’m always going to try to bring the smile to our room and I always like to smile and have fun and bring the smile to other guys,” Hertl told rinkside reporter Ashali Vise.
It’s a welcomed change considering Hertl had previously inspired a different type of reaction from the Golden Knights. As a member of the Sharks, two moments involving Hertl and the Golden Knights stand above the rest.
First, in 2019, he scored a double-overtime game-winner on Marc-André Fleury in Game 6 of the teams’ first-round playoff series. Hertl keeping the Sharks alive set up the infamous “not a major” game two days later, when the Golden Knights were eliminated from the postseason.
Then, in 2021, Hertl and Stone got into a fight during an intense regular-season game that saw the Golden Knights nab a comeback 5-4 victory. Then-Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said it felt like “April Fool’s Day” seeing the typically measured Stone and Hertl, a pair of players he coached at different spots, exchange blows.
“We always had some rivalry,” Hertl said of his relationship with Stone.
But now they’re as tight as any two players on the team as partners on the Golden Knights’ new-look second line along with Chandler Stephenson. They’ll lead Vegas for the foreseeable future, considering Hertl has six years left on his current contract while Stone still has three years left on the deal he signed upon coming to the franchise in 2019.
Their potential together might be untapped, and the only certainties are that Hertl will make sure they have fun exploring it and keep T-Mobile Arena rocking.
“He’s a great guy to add to the mix,” Cassidy said. “I’m pleased with his game and that his health is good, too. You never know, coming off an injury, how it will play out for you.”
This story appeared in Las VegasWeekly.
