Joe Thornton
Date of birth | 2nd July 1979 |
place of birth | London , Ontario , Canada |
Nickname | Big Joe, Jumbo Joe |
size | 193 cm |
Weight | 107 kg |
position | center |
number | # 19 |
Shot hand | Left |
Draft | |
NHL Entry Draft |
1997 , 1st lap, 1st position Boston Bruins |
Career stations | |
1993-1994 | Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs |
1994-1995 | St. Thomas Stars |
1995-1997 | Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds |
1997-2005 | Boston Bruins |
2004-2005 | HC Davos |
since 2005 | San Jose Sharks |
2012 | HC Davos |
Joseph "Joe" Eric Thornton (born July 2, 1979 in London , Ontario ) is a Canadian ice hockey player who has played for the San Jose Sharks in the National Hockey League since 2005 . The center began his professional career with the Boston Bruins , who had selected him in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft in first position . After about eight years in Boston, he was released to the Sharks during the 2005/06 season, and at the end of this season he won the Art Ross Trophy as the best scorer in the league and with theHart Memorial Trophy was named the NHL's Most Valuable Player . Thornton led both the Bruins and the Sharks as captain and has already scored well over 1000 points . With the Canadian national team , he won gold medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics and at the World Cups of Hockey in 2004 and 2016 .
Career
Thornton initially played in junior teams near his birthplace until 1995. For the 1995/96 season he joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from the Ontario Hockey League . With 76 points in 66 games, he was named Rookie of the Year of the OHL and the CHL at the end of his first season . His second and final season for the greyhounds was similarly successful for him. That year he accumulated 122 points in just 59 games. In addition to being nominated for the league's All-Star Team, Thornton was also considered one of the most promising candidates for an early draw in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft . Ultimately, the Canadian was drawn as the overall first in the draft by the Boston Bruins , ahead of his future teammate Patrick Marleau . Thornton thus fulfilled the expectations as the highest traded draft pick of the three Canadian junior leagues .
After a disastrous 1996/97 season for the Bruins, they committed their talent right at the beginning of the new season . Thornton, then 18 years old, could not fulfill the hopes placed in him with a meager seven points from 55 games, but Boston still reached the first round of the playoffs. In the following three seasons, the center was able to increase its point count up to 71 points, but the Bruins missed qualifying for the playoffs in two seasons. In the 2001/02 season Thornton's point yield stagnated for the first time since his debut in the National Hockey League , but he improved the same but in the 2002/03 season by a full 30 to 101 points. It was also his best season in the traditional team's jersey and was rewarded with his appointment to the NHL Second All-Star Team . The Canadian also spent the following season in Boston, but his point production declined significantly and the team was eliminated, as in the past two years, with Thornton as team captain in the first round, who was once again disappointing in the playoffs .
The 2004/05 season spent Thornton due to the NHL lockout the HC Davos in the Swiss National League A , where he on Rick Nash - 2002 also drafted at position 1 - and the Finn Niklas Hagman met. The three NHL stars were significantly involved in the 27th Swiss championship title of HC Davos and also led the team to win the prestigious Spengler Cup . Thornton was named National League A Most Valuable Player at the end of the season .
Before the 2005/06 season , Thornton extended his contract in Boston by three years with a total salary of 19.8 million US dollars , although he initially did not want to stay there and other teams had already made contact with the management of the Bruins. Despite the extension of the contract and the fact that Thornton was by far the best scorer of his team at that time, a so-called blockbuster trade occurred on November 30, 2005. Thornton was traded by the Boston Bruins for defenseman Brad Stuart , center Wayne Primeau and the German Marco Sturm of the San Jose Sharks . With the engagement of Thorntons the Sharks improved abruptly, which was also due to Thorntons 14 points in his first six games for the new team. He also found a partner in Jonathan Cheechoo with whom he immediately hit it off blindly on the ice. Cheechoo scored 56 goals this season and received the coveted Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy for top scorer in the league. Thornton crowned his 125-point season by winning the Art Ross Trophy for best scorer in the league and the Hart Memorial Trophy for Most Valuable Player, although he moved from Boston (33 points) to San Jose (92nd place) after just 23 games Points) was transferred. He is the first and so far the only player to become the top scorer but who changed teams during the season. He was also appointed to the NHL First All-Star Team . For the first time in the Canadian's career, the playoffs were as successful as the regular season. In just eleven games with the Sharks, he scored half as many points as with the Bruins in 35 games.
In the 2006/07 season Thornton continued despite small injuries at the beginning of the season seamlessly on the performances of the previous year, which led to the fact that he collected the most points of all NHL players behind Sidney Crosby . He also set new franchise records for the Sharks in the points and assists categories. With his 90th season assistant on April 5, 2007, he was the third player in NHL history - after Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux - to prepare 90 or more goals in two consecutive seasons. During the summer break, the management extended his contract, which expired in 2008, by three years to 2011. Thornton repaid this trust in the 2007/08 season and was next to goalkeeper Yevgeny Nabokow the best and most consistent player in the season. Although he could only score 96 points, including 67 assists, he was by far the most successful attacker of the Northern Californians.
On April 8, 2011, he scored in his 994th NHL game in the regular season against the Phoenix Coyotes and reached the mark of 1000 points as the 78th player in the history of the NHL .
Due to the lockout in the NHL, he returned to HC Davos in September 2012.
Thornton is an athlete ambassador for the development aid organization Right to Play .
International
On the international stage Thornton ran in a total of five tournaments for the Canadian national team , including one in the junior division.
Thornton first appeared internationally at the Junior World Cup in Switzerland in 1997 , when he won the gold medal with the team after a 2-0 final victory over the US team. The then 17-year-old scored four points in seven games.
At its first senior tournament, the 2001 World Cup in Germany , the Canadian team disappointed with a fifth place and the center also remained rather pale with two points from six games. Thornton showed a significant increase three years later at the World Cup of Hockey 2004 when he won the gold medal and he contributed six points in six games to winning the title. At the 2005 World Cup in Austria , the Canadian presented himself better again. Due to his 16 points scorer in nine matches, he was voted the most valuable player of the tournament. Together with the wingers Rick Nash and Simon Gagné , he led the Canadians to the final, but could not prevent the 3-0 defeat against the Czech Republic and had to be satisfied with the silver medal. Through his performances in the national jersey at the previous World Cup and the World Cup of Hockey, he was also nominated for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , where he was considered one of the team's key players. However, he scored only one goal in six games and, like many of his teammates, presented himself under normal form, causing the team to fail early in the quarterfinals. Nevertheless, in the summer of 2009, the striker was one of 46 players invited to the preparatory training camp for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . His second Olympic participation was confirmed on December 30th. Likewise, his two storm colleagues Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley for Canada took part in the tournament, with whom he formed an attack line. Thornton only collected two scorer points in seven tournament games, but won the gold medal at the end of the Winter Olympics.
He also represented his home country at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 and won the gold medal there with the team.
Achievements and Awards
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International
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Career statistics
Status: end of the 2019/20 season
Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
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season | team | league | Sp | T | V | Pt | SM | Sp | T | V | Pt | SM | ||
1993/94 | Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs | Ontario minor | 67 | 83 | 85 | 168 | 45 | |||||||
1993/94 | St. Thomas Stars | OHA-B | 6th | 2 | 6th | 8th | 2 | |||||||
1994/95 | St. Thomas Stars | OHA-B | 50 | 40 | 64 | 104 | 53 | |||||||
1995/96 | Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds | OHL | 66 | 30th | 46 | 76 | 51 | 4th | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||
1996/97 | Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds | OHL | 59 | 41 | 81 | 122 | 123 | 11 | 11 | 8th | 19th | 24 | ||
1997/98 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 55 | 3 | 4th | 7th | 19th | 6th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | ||
1998/99 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 81 | 16 | 25th | 41 | 69 | 11 | 3 | 6th | 9 | 4th | ||
1999/00 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 81 | 23 | 37 | 60 | 82 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2000/01 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 72 | 37 | 34 | 71 | 107 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2001/02 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 66 | 22nd | 46 | 68 | 127 | 6th | 2 | 4th | 6th | 10 | ||
2002/03 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 77 | 36 | 65 | 101 | 109 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | ||
2003/04 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 77 | 23 | 50 | 73 | 98 | 7th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14th | ||
2004/05 | HC Davos | NLA | 40 | 10 | 44 | 54 | 80 | 14th | 4th | 21st | 25th | 29 | ||
2005/06 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 23 | 9 | 24 | 33 | 6th | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2005/06 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 58 | 20th | 72 | 92 | 55 | 11 | 2 | 7th | 9 | 12 | ||
2006/07 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 22nd | 92 | 114 | 44 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 10 | ||
2007/08 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 29 | 67 | 96 | 59 | 13 | 2 | 8th | 10 | 2 | ||
2008/09 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 25th | 61 | 86 | 56 | 6th | 1 | 4th | 5 | 5 | ||
2009/10 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 79 | 20th | 69 | 89 | 54 | 15th | 3 | 9 | 12 | 18th | ||
2010/11 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 80 | 21st | 49 | 70 | 47 | 18th | 3 | 14th | 17th | 16 | ||
2011/12 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 18th | 59 | 77 | 31 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | ||
2012/13 | HC Davos | NLA | 33 | 11 | 25th | 36 | 43 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2012/13 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 48 | 7th | 33 | 40 | 26th | 11 | 2 | 8th | 10 | 2 | ||
2013/14 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 11 | 65 | 76 | 32 | 7th | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8th | ||
2014/15 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 78 | 16 | 49 | 65 | 30th | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2015/16 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 82 | 19th | 63 | 82 | 54 | 24 | 3 | 18th | 21st | 10 | ||
2016/17 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 79 | 7th | 43 | 50 | 51 | 4th | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
2017/18 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 47 | 13 | 23 | 36 | 38 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
2018/19 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 73 | 16 | 35 | 51 | 20th | 19th | 4th | 6th | 10 | 6th | ||
2019/20 | San Jose Sharks | NHL | 70 | 7th | 24 | 31 | 34 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
OHA-B total | 56 | 42 | 70 | 112 | 55 | |||||||||
OHL total | 125 | 71 | 127 | 198 | 174 | 15th | 12 | 9 | 21st | 35 | ||||
NLA total | 73 | 21st | 69 | 90 | 123 | 14th | 4th | 21st | 25th | 29 | ||||
NHL overall | 1636 | 420 | 1089 | 1509 | 1248 | 179 | 31 | 102 | 133 | 132 |
International
Represented Canada to:
( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1 play-downs / relegation )
family
Thornton's cousin Scott Thornton was also a professional ice hockey player. Both played together for the San Jose Sharks in the 2005/06 season . Scott Thornton ended his career in the summer of 2008 after 1,020 appearances in the National Hockey League .
Cody Thornton , Joe Thornton's nephew , played for EV Landshut between 2010 and 2016 .
Web links
- Player biography on the San Jose Sharks website
- Joe Thornton at legendsofhockey.net (English)
- Joe Thornton at eliteprospects.com (English)
Goalkeepers:
Aaron Dell |
Martin Jones
defender:
Brent Burns ( A ) |
Mario Ferraro |
Tim Heed |
Erik Karlsson ( A ) |
Dalton Prout |
Radim Šimek |
Marc-Édouard Vlasic
attacker:
Logan Couture ( C ) |
Dylan Gambrell |
Tomáš Hertl ( A ) |
Evander Kane |
Melker Karlsson |
Joel Kellman |
Kevin Labanc |
Timo Meier |
Stefan Noesen |
Marcus Soerensen |
Joe Thornton ( A )
Head Coach: Bob Boughner Assistant Coach : Dave Barr | Steve Spott General Manager: Doug Wilson
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Thornton, Joe |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thornton, Joseph Eric (full name); Big joe; Jumbo Joe (nickname) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian ice hockey player |
DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd July 1979 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | London , Ontario, Canada |