Nearly 28 years to the day after being drafted first overall by the Boston Bruins, Joe Thornton has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Thornton was one of eight people elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, getting in on his first ballot appearance. He will be inducted on Nov. 10 in Toronto alongside fellow Bruins legend Zdeno Chára.
Boston took Thornton with the No. 1 pick in the 1997 NHL entry draft, 11 days before his 18th birthday. The London, Ontario native debuted with the Bruins that fall and soon emerged as one of their best players, making three consecutive All-Star teams from 2002 to 2004 and serving as their captain.
In his eighth season with Boston, he was shockingly traded to the San Jose Sharks in November 2005 for Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart and Marco Sturm. The move came on the heels of several disappointing playoff runs and was intended to improve team chemistry, but it immediately backfired as Thornton won the Hart Trophy that year.
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The gifted center shined during his 15 seasons with the Sharks, leading the NHL in assists three times and making three more All-Star teams. He retired in 2022 after 24 seasons, finishing his career with 430 goals and 1,109 assists in 1,714 games.
However, he never won a championship. His lone Stanley Cup Final appearance with San Jose ended in defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 as he managed only three points and no goals in the six games.
While his Bruins squads may have underachieved, Thornton was still a great individual player who played an integral role for the franchise for nearly a decade. He could have been a Boston legend had the team not traded him, but instead he became the first Hall of Famer to spend the majority of his career with the Sharks.
