Joe Thornton made the Sharks a team to watch, he gave us years and years of amazing runs and amazing hockey. "If we didn't get Thornton we could've drafted someone who might have been good though!" is a wild argument considering that Joe Thornton was a *generational Hall of Fame player*.
I would do that trade over and over and over again.
That said, while
@Hodge's DW hate is pathological, I do agree that the biggest issue with all those runs is that DW was terrible at building a bottom six. All teams had to do was cut off Joe's passes and double- / triple- team him and they could shut him down. What we needed was a third line that could win a game, or a fourth line that completely outmatched the other fourth line to pot in a timely goal or two. I don't think we've ever had that? For most of those years, our defense was pretty unbalanced too.
I think DW really struggled to build a balanced team. I also think they had some bad luck on some of their best runs.
Anyway, #noregrets, we should all feel lucky that we had the pleasure of watching Joe f***ing Thornton through the prime of his career, are you kidding me?!