clock menu more-arrow no yes

Filed under:

Ten years ago, Joe Thornton got traded mid-season

New, comments
Dave Sandford/Getty Images

Well, it's not like us to just let an anniversary like this go. Ten years ago, the Bruins traded away Jumbo Joe Thornton, to go down in history to ever trade a guy away during his MVP season. Whether you liked the trade or not, it is worth marking the occasion. His last point for the Bruins was a second assist on a Patrice Bergeron powerplay goal the day before the trade, a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Jay Pandolfo scored the game-tying goal for the Devils. Here's the point:

Joe Thornton, all told, played his first 532 games of his first-ballot hall-of-fame career for Boston. He scored 454 points in that time, which is 91 more than the next-highest guy in that same amount of time, Sergei Samsonov. Samsonov was traded later that season. Not a lot of Bruins' totals would have even made the difference between Samsonov and Thornton. Patrice Bergeron, in his second year at the time, had not yet eclipsed 91 on his career.

Here's the San Jose Broadcast from the night of the trade:

Obviously, in the ten years in the interim, the Bruins have won a single Stanley Cup and the Sharks have won zero of them. How do you feel about the Joe Thornton trade, 10 years later?