I'm surprised to see Stamkos leading this poll by a large margin, it's easily Thornton today AINEC. As another mentioned, he's had an entire career to establish this reputation, and what potentially career ending injury did Thornton ever have early in his prime? Stamkos had his leg snapped like a twig when he slid into the post off the rush to the net at the ripe young age of 23. Kid went from being a potential 50+ goal scorer on a yearly basis to struggling to hit 40. Not to mention he missed the majority of 2016-17 at age 26 due to another knee injury forcing him into surgery. Thornton has almost always had a decent team around him there in San Jose. They've made the playoffs every season except 2014-15 finishing first in their division 4 times, second 5 times, and third 4 times with eight seasons finishing over 100 points out of 14, 13 if you remove the lockout shortened season. Has anyone actually made an argument for Stamkos in this thread that isn't based on his entire team shitting the bed this post season? His healthiest seasons were before age 23..
