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With a dazzling display of stickhandling, poise, and immaculate vision, Joe Thornton maneuvered the puck around numerous players and made an UNBELIEVABLE play to retain it before feathering a perfect blind pass to his teammate. It was incredible, to say the least, and extremely fitting for one of the great playmakers of our time. The entire play could be considered among the most spectacular plays of the season, if not the decade!
Or, you know . . .
Or, you know . . .
Congratulations, Joe Thornton, on your 1,000th career NHL assist.Wayne Gretzky - 1,963
Ron Francis - 1,249
Mark Messier - 1,193
Ray Bourque - 1,169
Jaromir Jagr - 1,142
Paul Coffey - 1,135
Adam Oates - 1,079
Steve Yzerman - 1,063
Gordie Howe - 1,049
Marcel Dionne - 1,040
Mario Lemieux - 1,033
Joe Sakic - 1,016
Joe Thornton - 1,000
A top NHL prospect can't rest on junior feat WHO'S NO. 1? / Joe Thornton, not even first on his own team last year, has displaced Daniel Cleary.
Gare, Joyce. The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont] 18 Nov 1996: C.12.
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Sometimes everyone sits up and takes notice at the start of the season leading to the draft. Events have unfolded this way for Joe Thornton, a centre for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, a prototype of the pro power forward who is fairly dominating the Ontario Hockey League. The 17-year-old has been tapped by many as the likely first pick in the 1997 entry draft, which many scouts consider the richest pool of prospects this decade. He was known and well regarded last season... His 30 goals and 46 assists were good for a spot on the league's all-rookie team. Still, others rated consideration for the top slot. In fact, last year at this time, Thornton was not even the most-talked-about prospect on his own team. Now, he's the consensus pick.
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Friday night. On Joe Thornton's first shift in the game's opening minute, he was slashed by Kingston Frontenacs forward Rob Mailloux. At the first stoppage of play, Thornton was bumped by a couple of Kingston players trying to goad him into a fight. That the home team chose to pick on Thornton might seem preposterous because, at 6-foot-4, he was a helmet taller than their biggest player and is one of the league's toughest pugilists, when moved... Through the final 40 minutes, Thornton put on as dominant a performance as you'll see in the junior ranks. He ended the night with two goals and three assists in a 6-4 Soo victory, but those numbers only hint at his influence. He skated with the fluid motion and rapid turnover of a much smaller man. Backcheckers couldn't stay with him. The corners were his private property. Kids who tried to take his body struggled even to get his attention. He was at once immovable object and irrestistible force.
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"We give the puck to Joe and he just does it," said Richard Jackman, the Greyhounds defenceman selected fifth overall by the Dallas Stars in the 1996 entry draft... "It's tempting to stop playing [and to] just watch him. But Joe handles all of it so well, on the ice and off. He doesn't let us talk about being the No. 1 and never talks about that himself."
Thornton, the Soo's first choice in the 1995 midget draft, a kid who blossomed playing minor hockey in his home town of St. Thomas, Ont., says all the right things about being No. 1. "Coming into this season, my goals were team goals," he said after being selected as the first star of the Kingston game. "I just want to be a good team player."
He will not tempt fate nor court controversy. He said it was his "dream to play in the Soo, like Wayne Gretzky." He said that he enjoys the bus rides of eight and 10 hours. He said that he isn't counting on being first in the '97 NHL draft. He said that he isn't counting on playing in the NHL next season and that he'd be "happy to come back to the Soo for another season."
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"Early last season, the young player everybody was talking about was Rico Fata, a 15-year-old who got off to a great start with our team," said Dave Mayville, the Greyhounds' director of operations...."The attention that Rico received made it easier for Joe to break in. Normally, a first-rounder from the midget draft has a lot of people looking at him and talking about him. For Joe, it came a lot later. And he's equipped to handle the attention -- a 75-per-cent student, really solid character."
From now until the draft perhaps the issue becomes not talent, for Thornton's is conspicuous, but character. He understands or perhaps has been made to understand that he must confront the pressures of being the top-ranked draft-eligible junior. "When I came to the Soo, I just wanted to prove I could play at this level. I didn't ever expect to be considered for that top spot [in the '97 draft]. It would mean a lot to me, I guess, but it won't change me."
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How fortune's favour smiled on the Sharks: Thornton trade: [Toronto Edition]
Taylor, Scott. National Post; Don Mills, Ont. [Don Mills, Ont] 02 May 2006: S4.
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WINNIPEG - Sometimes, amazing things happen when you least expect them and memorable days can seem to fall right out of the sky.
For John Ferguson Sr., the special consultant to San Jose Sharks' general manager Doug Wilson, Nov. 30, 2005, was one of those special days, a day in which -- right out of the blue -- things just fell into place.
It was the day the Sharks, a slumping team scuffling along at 8- 12-4, were offered star centre Joe Thornton.
"We'd been struggling and were talking with Boston GM Mike O'Connell about making a deal," Ferguson recalled. "We were talking with them about Sergei Samsonov and Nick Boynton and things were starting to heat up.
"Then, with about 30 seconds left in a 2-2 tie with New Jersey [on Nov. 29], Thornton lost a crucial faceoff with John Madden. Madden got the puck back to Alexander Mogilny, who scored the winning goal. I guess that was it for Mike. He'd seen enough and that same night he called Doug and said, 'Would you like to have Joe Thornton?'
"Well, my job is to consult with Doug on all trades, and he called me right away. I nearly choked. I said, 'Doug, do what you need to do but don't let Mike change his mind. Get this guy immediately. He'll change the fortunes of our team.'"
The Sharks had lost nine straight, so Wilson had no problem making a handsome offer. He sent three former first-round draft picks -- Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart -- to Boston to get a legitimate superstar to move West.
"We just happened to be at the right place at the right time," Ferguson said. "If the Bruins had been talking to some other team, the Thornton offer probably would have been to them."
Just as Ferguson predicted, Thornton changed the entire culture in San Jose and along the way, helped make Jonathan Cheechoo a 56- goal scorer.
Now, as the Sharks get set for the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and Thornton prepares to be named 2005-06 NHL most valuable player, O'Connell is out of a job and the Bruins are playing golf.
"[Bruins president] Harry Sinden said to me once, 'If you want to make a trade, get the other guy to negotiate at midnight because you can really take advantage of him,' " said Ferguson, the former general manager of the Winnipeg Jets. "I guess we got Mike in a bad mood at midnight. It's kind of amazing to me that Harry let it happen. As everyone knows, Joe Thornton is a great hockey player. And I don't use 'great' very often."
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Not your average Joe: Thornton caps stellar season with NHL Most Valuable Player nod: [Final Edition]
Botchford, Jason. Nanaimo Daily News; Nanaimo, B.C. [Nanaimo, B.C] 23 June 2006: B3.
VANCOUVER -- He was virtually unstoppable at the end of the regular season, ripping the heart out of the Vancouver Canucks' playoff chances with seven assists in back-to-back games.
Joe Thornton grabbed another Hart in Vancouver on Thursday.
Cast aside by the Boston Bruins and criticized for lacking leadership, Thornton got his redemption when he was honoured with the Hart Memorial Trophy at Thursday night's NHL awards show.
Thornton said he saw the trade from Boston as an opportunity for a fresh start.
He knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime when he got to California and saw the talent on the San Jose Sharks.
"I couldn't believe this was a team that had lost 10 in a row before I got there," Thornton said. "When I got there I saw a team that had a lot of really good players."
Usually, it takes time for players to get comfortable with each other but Thornton said he jelled immediately with his new teammates.
"I think you have to get into the right situation and I ended up with some real good players," Thornton said. "Playing with Cheech (Jonathan Cheechoo) and my cousin Scott (Thornton) right from the start really helped me with my game and how comfortable I was.
"It took no time at all to get going."
Thornton was able to make magic in San Jose.
He helped turn a moribund, underachieving team into a Stanley Cup contender.
He turned Cheechoo into the league's top goal-scorer. He established himself as the best player in the NHL.
But, he said, he doesn't view the award as vindication.
"I don't think of it like that," Thornton said. "I'm just in a new place playing the same game I've always played. I really wish the Bruins all the best.
"I've never changed my game, I'm just playing with different players, that's all."
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