Kansas City. Las Vegas. Los Angeles. New Orleans. New York. San Antonio. San Diego. Tampa Bay. Washington DC. By The Athletic Staff. The Florida Panthers have signed veteran forward Joe Thornton to a one-year contract, the team announced on Friday. He played for the San Jose Sharks for 15 seasons, becoming the all-time franchise leader in assists, power-play points and plus-minus rating.
His 1, games played is the second-most of active NHL players and the sixth-most of all time. Thornton has tallied 1, points over his career, the most among active skaters in the league. Featured Teams. Home Odds. Bayern Munich Dortmund. Celtic Rangers. Toggle navigation Subscribe. By Pierre LeBrun May 9, In fact, the San Jose Sharks greybeard was surprised to learn that he had a media request following their win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 on Wednesday.
The native of St. Thomas, Ontario, has never wanted it to be about him. He genuinely looks uncomfortable doing it, always eager to change the subject and pump the tires of a teammate instead. The idea that these playoffs more and more will turn into his story a la Ray Bourque or Dave Andreychuk, is not of interest to Thornton.
However, he watched Boston win it in They loved me, I loved them right back. The people were so kind to me, the Shark Tank was one of the best buildings to play in. I hope I did them proud when I played. When asking myself was the trade back in worth it for the Sharks, the answer is yes, to the fullest. You have to remember in the sport of hockey, it truly is a team game, and he was the epitome of that.
This is not a sport where one player can dictate the outcome. He helped give the fans competitive hockey on the ice, while he also helped to transcend other careers, like those of Pavelski and Marleau.
Could he have accomplished what he did if he had stayed in Boston? That will be a question asked repeatedly, but with an answer never to be found. At the end of the day when you think of Joe Thornton, you think of San Jose.
That will be the case forever, once he decides to hang it up, as he will be engraved in the Hockey Hall of Fame up in Toronto for all of eternity. Not as a Bruin. But as a San Jose Shark.
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More FS Atlantic News ». View all Atlantic Sites. More Metropolitan News ». More FS Metropolitan News ». I've tried to imagine what it's like to watch Homer work from the other side and I just can't get there. But I am sure it has earned him his fair share of negative energy over the years. While I considered slotting in Niklas Kronwall for his nasty open ice hits, Holmstrom has driven more teams up a wall, more often, and as such is more hated on.
This is what happens when you win the Stanley Cup as a goaltender, and then hit the free agent market a few short weeks later. You cash in. What's supposed to happen is the netminder lives up to the billing and brings a particular kind of swagger and legitimacy to a lineup. Needless to say that this hasn't been the case with Nikolai Khabibulin with the Edmonton Oilers. Instead he's been a pretty expensive and remarkably average goaltender.
At least overpaid skaters can take up a spot on a lower line and be some kind of advantage to their team. But a guy this expensive and touted playing backup goalie? Can I get a "it's time for a line change, coach? David Booth is a bit of a goat because of how good he could be, and how good he was supposed to be.
Truth be told, he may still be effected by the Mike Richards hit as he didn't really come back the same player. Booth wouldn't make the cut with just about any other team, but the Panthers don't have the name recognition yet for the players to draw harassment for their short comings. And they don't harbor any outright thugs either. Same deal with Carolina: Am I missing something in Florida? Who do you hate to play against in the Panthers organization.
The argument could be make that if was a Mike Richards hit that started all of this concussion talk. It seemed like his hit on David Booth was one of the biggest spark plugs for this head shot rule changes. The hit on the talented Panthers forward, and the guy missed almost an entire season because of the shot. The Tim Connolly check was pretty nasty as well With Richards the Kings land themselves one of the more notoriously edgy hitters, and a guy who instantly becomes their most disliked and hated on player.
Another member of the 'if he could only stay healthy club. While the stigma still follows him from a few injury riddled seasons, the truth is Havlat has been pretty sturdy through the last two years in Minnesota. But when the offense isn't up to par and the defense surely could be better Havlat has been a across two years for the Wild things get a little stressed.
Wild fans are on OK terms with this guy, but he has the reputation around the League for being a guy who gets hurt easily, and fans always hone in on the offensively gifted, injury prone star—as they should to a degree.
When things aren't going well for the Wild, the sentence "Marty Havlat has to play a bit better" is generally part of the consensuses. PK Subban is a lightning rod of a hockey player. From the time he made his debut on the Montreal Canadians that he had a bit of swagger and toughness to add to a pretty solid offensive game from the blueline.
But when you line up humongous open ice hits, and have always been a big personality during games a lot of people are going to come down on you for it.
Subban is no different. Fellow list-maker Mike Richards tore into Subban during a radio interview with Norman Marshall of Metro Networks, saying the following: "He's a guy that's come in the league and hasn't earned respect," Richards told the radio station. You have to earn respect in this league. It takes a lot.
You can't just come in here as a rookie and play like that. Jordin Tootoo is the kind of player that fans would love to see on their own squads, but hate playing against him. Seeing him several times a year against Detroit, I can attest to why. Tootoo is a guy who makes his living on the physical edge, and does plenty of talking, and then fighting sometimes to back himself up. While he may not make the list on some other squads, he does here as a representative of the mostly likeable Nashville Predators.
After all when was the last time you openly dished on your hatred of Martin Erat? Ilya Kovalchuk might as well have a bulls eye tattooed on his back because it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I don't want to recount it—I'm still sick of hearing about it and the deal is a year old. But there really are few players on earth who can live up to such a sizable contract and become "one of the guys" in the locker room after such a scene was made.
Kovalchuk finally started to get his act together after the All Star break last season, but it's hard to see him fully living up to or living down, depending on how you look at it his massive contract. If the Devils fail, this is the guy that blame will come to almost every time. Rick Dipietro is either a total sissy that honestly can't do anything without getting injured, or he is actually the smartest guy in the room, having figured out a way to fake injury and get paid large sums of money to do nothing but rehab and get re-injured.
Or maybe it's a little bit of both. But Dipietro married himself to the Islanders as the goaltender of the future, and then promptly failed to live up to any kind of expectations whatsoever.
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