It’s incredible to think that Joe Thornton has been in San Jose now for 11 years. He seemed like a fixture in Boston after ookaying there for nearly as long, scoring 100 points twice and establishing himself as the team’s captain. The Bruins decided they preferred to build around Patrice Bergeron, however, and dealt him to San Jose in a four team deal.
The Bruins aren’t going to complain about the trade, as they ultimately won the Stanley Cup with that team built around Bergeron, but if you simply look at the output and durability of the players involved in the trade, it’s no doubt that San Jose got the better end of the arrangement.
One need only look at the service time accrued by the players involved. Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart was spun to Calgary a little over a year later for Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew. Marco Sturm was the most productive for the Bruins, accumulating a handful of 20 goal seasons, while Kobasew was shipped to Minnesota for nothing and Stuart ultimately ended up in San Jose, where Joe Thornton still remained.
And Thornton still remains in San Jose. Long gone is the goal scorer that played in Boston — he never hit the 30 goal mark in teal — but a team leader and a player with good ice vision emerged. He has regularly tallied 50+ assists, helping Jonathan Cheechoo, Patrick Marleau, Tomas Hertl and many others develop into far more than they would have been otherwise.
Thornton is playing in his 1,400th game tonight, and has the reputation of being important contributor for two different teams in two different decades. His numbers are lagging a little bit in the past year or so, but the Bruins should be the first to tell the Sharks not to count Joe Thornton out.
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