Promising San Jose Sharks rookie forward Tomas Hertl will have surgery on his right knee next week and could be sidelined for more than a month, the National Hockey League team said on Monday.
The 20-year-old Hertl, who has scored 25 points in 35 games for the Sharks this season with 15 goals and 10 assists, suffered the injury in a knee-on-knee collision with Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown last week.
The Sharks went on to lose that game, played on Thursday, 4-1 and then unveiled a new-look lineup for Saturday's game against the Dallas Stars, which they won 3-2 in a shootout.
Sharks general manager Doug Wilson initially said that Hertl would miss at least a month but now that surgery has been scheduled the team said the talented Czech could be out for a longer period.
"The swelling is pretty extensive still," Wilson told reporters. "We'll know more hopefully in the next week or so. The projection is probably a minimum of a month right now ... but we are prepared that it could be longer."
Hertl, who previously played for HC Slavia Praha in the Czech Extraliga, was selected by the Sharks 17th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
The Sharks have compiled a 22-8-6 record this season and sit fifth in the 14-team Western Conference.
© Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved
