Tomas Hertl, playing in his hometown of Prague, scored the Sharks’ first goal of the season on Friday against the Predators.
- Editor’s note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
PRAGUE – Tomas Hertl thought the Dallas Stars were going to draft him.
“I was actually thinking Dallas at 13 because [their Czech scout] Jiri Hrdina was going on the stage,” Hertl recalled about sitting in then-Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh during the 2012 Draft. “But they took [Radek] Faksa.”
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Not surprisingly, that can be an actual tell for who an organization is selecting in the first round, the area scout who comes up with the contingent making the selection.
“There’s a lot of little tells,” then-San Jose Sharks director of scouting Tim Burke laughed. So many, you even toss out red herrings during the Draft.
“Sometimes we have somebody go to talk to somebody that we think it might throw somebody else off.”
But Hertl felt good when he saw Sharks’ Czech scout Karel Masopust headed to the stage with GM Doug Wilson, Burke, scout Shin Larsson, and company. San Jose was picking 17th.
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“I see Karel, so it must be the next Czech guy. It was probably me, there weren’t [any other Czechs] around,” Hertl said of that spot in the Draft. “When I heard my name, I was so excited to walk on the stage.”
For the late Masopust, who passed away in 2019 at 76, selecting Hertl was a moment two years in the making.