Kristen Shilton is a national NHL reporter for ESPN.
The Vegas Golden Knights got a blockbuster trade in under the wire Friday, acquiring forward Tomas Hertl, a 2025 third-round pick and 2027 third-round choice from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2025 first-round pick and forward David Edstrom (Vegas’ first-round draft choice in 2023). The Sharks will also retain 17% of Hertl’s salary.
Hertl has six seasons remaining on an eight-year, $65.1 million contract he signed in March 2022. The Sharks holding back 17% of Hertl’s salary leaves his cap hit at $6.75 million for Vegas to carry. The 30-year-old also had a full no-move clause he would have had to waive to join the Golden Knights. But Hertl won’t be stepping right into their lineup. The veteran has been sidelined since having surgery Feb. 12 to clean out loose cartilage in his left knee. Expectations are that he will be ready to return in time for the playoffs.
Moving from San Jose to Vegas takes Hertl from one of the NHL’s worst teams this season to a legitimate contender. And while the Sharks have struggled throughout the season — and sit 31st overall — Hertl has played well, collecting 15 goals and 34 points in 48 games. He’s an impressive two-way skater who projects to be a top-six center for the Golden Knights now, contributing at 5-on-5 and special teams, winning puck battles, and wielding playmaking abilities to complement Vegas’ arsenal of established players that guided the Golden Knights to a Stanley Cup win last spring.
The Hertl trade was Vegas’ second big swing ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline. The Golden Knights acquired defenseman Noah Hanifin earlier in the week from Calgary to bolster their blueline as well. In an interesting twist, the trade for Hertl also impacted the conditions on Hanifin — instead of the Flames receiving a top-10-protected 2025 first-round pick (which Vegas just swapped to San Jose) for the defenseman, they will now get an unconditional first-round choice in 2026.
The Golden Knights also added forward Anthony Mantha to beef up their offensive depth.
In San Jose’s case, shipping Hertl to Vegas does clear some cap room. But per CapFriendly data, retaining salary on the six years Hertl has left means the Sharks have now used their league-allotted three slots for trade-related salary retention in 2024-25 and two slots in each of 2025-26 and 2026-27. That will impact how San Jose — well into a rebuild that could last for years — can broker transactions over the next few seasons.
On Vegas’ end, it had no projected salary cap space before grabbing Hertl and will have to figure out how to fit his hit into the team’s long-term plans. Since Hertl is injured now and there is no salary cap compliance mandated in the postseason, the Knights can avoid ironing out that situation until before next season.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.
The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.
“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”
The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.
The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.
The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.
The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.
Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.
“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”
Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.
“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”
The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.
“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.
“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”