Will it be a sophomore slump or a healthy breakout for Tomas Hertl this season?

During a sublime start to his NHL career last fall, Tomas 'Teenage Mutant Ninja' Hertl turned many heads in the Bay Area and around the game, firing goals in left, right and centre before falling to a bad knee injury just prior to Christmas. In fact, Hertl piled up an insane six markers over his first eight periods and change to start his career, along with 18 points overall in his first 20 contests.

That kick-started a truncated 37-game season where he went on to maintain a ridiculous 41-goal pace. At the time of his December 19^th injury, that pace was even higher, at 46!! Small sample size? Of course. Yet not a sample to be disregarded either; having laced them up for over 45% of the campaign.

You'll vividly recall the epic four-goal-game in his third ever contest, and ensuing reaction elicited by a super impressed Joe Thornton. Hertl fashioned himself as the youngest player (19 years old at the time) to notch four goals in a game since 1988. Naturally, that would place him as the only teen to pull off the feat since the run-and-gun fire wagon days. Just simply unbelievable stuff.

Hertl enacted this damage instantly after being fortuitously paired with the still excellent playmaker, Thornton and Brent Burns on the Shark's top line.

2013-14 Most Common Linemate Generator via Frozen Pools

FP's 2013-14 Line Production – by Line Combination Frequency for Tomas Hertl

It took the young Czech a few games to get going again; his top line spot being long gone, forced to skate with scrubs down the stretch. However, once the post-season began and Hertl got his first taste of the post-season, he went off for five points in an otherwise incredibly disappointing, seven game series for the team, famously including a 3-0 series lead.