I'm a Sabres fan, but I figured he'd be in Boston for his entire career...




BOSTON (AP) - The struggling Boston Bruins traded captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night in exchange for three players.

The Bruins get forwards Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau and defenseman Brad Stuart for Thornton, who signed a three-year, $20 million contract with Boston in August and was once thought to be the future of the franchise.

"He is a leader who scores points and makes other players around him better," San Jose general manager Doug Wilson said in a statement on the team's Web site. "To get a player of this caliber, you have to give up something to get something. You would make this trade last month, this month or next year. It follows our philosophy of making our team better for this year and next year."

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Thornton had been the key to the Bruins' offense. He scored more than 20 goals in each of his last five NHL seasons, including two with 30 or more. In 2003-04, he led the team in scoring with 23 goals and 50 assists.

This season, the 26-year-old Thornton has nine goals and 24 assists for Boston, which has lost nine of its last 10 games and is in last place in the Northeast Division.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/hockey/nhl/11/30/bc.hkn.lgns.bruinssharksdeal.ap/index.html

The Sharks should of never given up Brad Stuart in this deal. He is just too good and still very young.

Thorntons a great player, obviously, but this is a very good deal for the bruins. Im surprised they traded him, personally.

Are you guys serious? San Jose won this trade hands down. I can't even begin to fathom what the Boston GM was thinking when he pulled the trigger on this one.

I went to a Sharks game once. Between periods the Shark mascot was giving out 2 pizzas, one in each hand and was walking down the stairs with them raised high looking for the loudest fan to give them to. Well, he then proceeded to trip and fall with both pizzas flying up in the air and out of the box. He fell down the stairs all the way to the 4th row, and the pizzas slid down the stairs like a slinky. He jumped up, gave it the I'm OK wave, picked up the pizzas, threw them back in the box, one of which I'm sure was upside down, and shoved the 2 mangled boxes in some dude's face and ran out.

and the Bruins decade plus of suck continues

He was thinking that he had one player making >20% of his teams salary cap, likely. A team that is not very good.

Its a fairly even trade, but this shows how desperate Boston is right now. I figured he would remain in Beantown for the rest of his career as well.

They just talked about on the local news. Tom Lynch called him the most underachieving Bruins draft pick ever.

as a bruins fan this has me livid. how do you trade your franchise player for 3 guys that wont contribute 1/2 of what he would have, and just to save 1.5 mil?

and with joe gone glen murrays not gonna be half the player he has been for the last few years

ive never been so pissed about a sports transaction
this is bullshit

Having a vet on a team to guide a team can only take you so far. Bruins need some fresh air to them, and as weirded out as I am about this, I think in the long run the Bruins may win out.

I dunno, I never much liked Thornton. He excelled at the creative pass and at creating scoring opportunities, but I can't tell you how many times it felt like he was mailing it in - or that his style of play just lends itself to looking as though he's soft. When Forsberg or Sakic (or Drury at one point) hit the ice with the Avs, you always felt like those lines might put something together - Thornton's presence on the ice was just sorta...there.

But, if you trade away your "franchise player," there had better be a clear objective that you are looking to fill in both the short and long term, and I don't know that they've achieved either of those goals.

Well, check that - if these guys can actually still skate shifts in the last 10 minutes of the 3rd period, then SWEET. Not that Thornton couldn't, just that no one else, save maybe Isbister, seems to have much fight left in them by the final minutes.

Could this be considered "rebuilding"? By hucking Thorton to SJ, you send a msg that no one is sacred in the house.

Who is the Bruins #1 center now? You'd think they should have at least received Marlowe in return.

Unless Boston saves some major cap room to sign a big-time free agent next year, I have to agree with this.

My impression of Sturm is that he's a good two-way player, but is basically a 50-point guy. Stuart has been lauded as a great young defenseman for a while, but as far as I know he's never actually lived up to that. Primeau is a 4th line center - he doesn't have anything near the offensive skill his big bro had.

They should've traded him to Detroit for Datsyuk.

Holy shit, did anyone else listen to Jeremy Jacobs on WEEI this afternoon? Is there a more insufferable ass (next to Shaughnessy) in Boston sports? Wow...

I can't believe it. When I heard this last night I was speechless & it kept me up most of the night. Why Thornton? I totally understand making a move esp to get a top 4 blueliner but why Thornton?

Now Murray looks old & overpaid, his goal every other game pace will drop to every 3rd or 4th game. Samsonov is counting the days till next Summer when he becomes a UFA (and maybe replace Sturm in SJ) & Isbister who could've replaced Knuble on the 700 lb line is just another big 3rd liner with untapped potential. You might as well have thrown those 3 in too.

Yes Thornton hadn't proven he was a true franchise player but we're talking about a guy who was only 24 & playing injured in the last playoffs. He's on pace for 116 points this year after he turned down a shot at unrestricted free agency next Summer. They built the team around him & tied up Green & Murray at his request.

And what did they get? Primeau. And not even the Primeau who sucks in the postseason, the one who sucks during every part of the season. Oh he's a checking center, great you found a replacement for 34 y/o Green. Sturm who can replace Samsonov & a top 4 d-man in Stuart. They should've landed Hannan instead of Stuart or McCauley instead of Primeau.

The only way I can justify this trade making any sense is with all the long term deals they tied older vets up to (33 y/o Murray 4 year @ 4.15 mil, 35 y/o Zhamonov 3 years @ 4.1) they handcuffed themselves & by the time Thornton came up for UFA in 07 the team would be a disaster & he'd bolt. So they figure with the toilet they're in right now & how good the Northeast is this season is done so they're really dumping Thornton now instead of 2005-6 or maybe deadline 07.

And as a Kings fan I hate this deal even more. We're tied with Dallas but they don't scare me. Thornton is the playmaker the Sharks have missed since Vinny D left. Ekman lead their forwards in assists 03-04 with 33. Joe's exactly what they need & they'll go from basement to penthouse in the Pacific.

Joe Thornton rules in NHL2k6

So The Bruins go out tonight and shutout the highest scoring team i the NHL (Senators), first time they've been shut out all year. And Sturm gets a goal and an assist.

Maybe McConnell isn't as dumb as he seems.

Yeah..I agree with a lot of you guys...San Jose did make out no matter how you look at it..Sturm is decent..Not the scorer Joe is and he won't help Murray like Joe did...Primeau is a 4th line guy...You can get that shit off waivers...Stuart is good but he hasn't had the breakout year everyone has been waiting for..He was great his rookie year, but has been so-so since then..

I think they just could have got more for Thornton..There is no way this is the best they could have gotten for him...It seems like a panic trade..

I feel for the Boston fans...

Didn't hear it but I like this shot by Bill Simmons.

Ok makes a tiny bit more sense now. Not because of last nites win. Even bad teams come up big after a trade like that.

Thornton has a no trade clause that kicks in next season. So they trade him now or risk him walking away in '08 for nothing. So now I see the reasoning. And no money wasn't an issue, that's the knee jerk reaction by everyone in the media to a Bruin trade. But really they saved a bit over a million.

I'm still pissed they didn't get more. The rumours of a package that included Nathan Horton out of FLA back in August sound more apealling. Wonder how true they were. Maybe FLA is too tied up in shopping Loungo.

I don't know how the numbers stack up, but a Luongo-for-Thornton trade (with a few extra players in the mix) would've made more sense than this San Jose deal.