The San Jose Sharks forward was injured in the first period of a 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. He scored the first goal of the game after scoring five goals at the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game. He will not play again this season.
"It [stinks] for the player," Sharks coach Bob Boughner told the newspaper. "He's dealt with some injuries in the past and he's come back from them, and he'll come back from this one as well.
"It's just depressing. You're coming off that All-Star Game where you had five goals and then you play a game like [he] did, he started against Vancouver, I thought he was the best player on the ice and he deals with something on a very harmless play. So it's bad luck."
Hertl had 36 points (16 goals, 20 assists) and was named an all-star for the first time as an injury replacement for teammate Logan Couture, a forward and Sharks captain who is out with a fractured ankle.
Hertl had surgery to repair damaged ligaments in his right knee as a rookie in 2013-14. He injured his right knee in Game 2 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins and missed the rest of the series, and had surgery for a sprain in his right knee during the 2016-17 season.
"He's been down this avenue before, which is tough, so he knows what kind of goes into the rehab," teammate Joe Thornton said. "But I told him, he's young (26) -- I went through two myself -- and he's going to heal quick and hopefully be ready for training camp next year.
"But we have so much love for him that, he knows he's not alone in this, which is very, very important as well. The guys will take good care of him."
Thornton sustained similar knee injuries before the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs and midway through the 2017-18 season.
"It's a mental grind to start, but once you kind of get in that mindset that, 'Hey, I've got to get back to the guys,' then you just dial it in and go to work, and you can see an end goal," Thornton said.
"The training staff and the (strength and conditioning) guys working out with him every day, they make it fun. They make it interesting, and they make that you want to come every day to get better for the guys."
