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Thornton Watch

Nik said:
Thornton's wife is Swiss and he's got Swiss citizenship. So it's probably a case of them just living in a different one of their houses as opposed to moving.
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He was already riding out the league shutdown/playoffs in Switzerland so this is just practicing down the street.
 
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/joe-thornton-joins-swiss-club-hc-davos-plans-return-nhl/
"It's a great honour that Joe has chosen to appear for the HCD for a third time in his incredible career," Davos coach Raeto Raffainer said in a translated statement. "And what I saw from him in training, he is absolutely capable of helping our team athletically. His kick-off, his puck control and his pass quality is still at an extremely high level. It will be a great pleasure for all hockey fans to see him play on Swiss ice again."
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CarltonTheBear said:
Joe S. said:
Does anyone remember the story of why he wanted out of boston?
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I don't believe he wanted/asked for a trade.
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Maybe my memory is fuzzy on this,  it I thought he said something to the effect of he wouldn?t return or was holding out and there were all these rumours of toronto being in the mix.

 
Joe S. said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Joe S. said:
Does anyone remember the story of why he wanted out of boston?
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I don't believe he wanted/asked for a trade.
Click to expand...

Maybe my memory is fuzzy on this,  it I thought he said something to the effect of he wouldn?t return or was holding out and there were all these rumours of toronto being in the mix.
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It was mid season in his Hart trophy year, Bruins had lost 9 of 10.

Doesn't look like he missed a game in between his last game with Boston and first game with San Jose.
 
Joe S. said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Joe S. said:
Does anyone remember the story of why he wanted out of boston?
Click to expand...

I don't believe he wanted/asked for a trade.
Click to expand...

Maybe my memory is fuzzy on this,  it I thought he said something to the effect of he wouldn?t return or was holding out and there were all these rumours of toronto being in the mix.
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Maybe you got some of Kessel's situation mixed in there?
 
Yeah that?s likely what I?m mixing it up with.

Looks like My memory was way off

https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=2242875
 
Supposedly Jumbo was killed trying to lead a smaller elephant off the track called Tom Thumb and both died, in St.Thomas Ontario of all freaking places. 
 
Highlander said:
Supposedly Jumbo was killed trying to lead a smaller elephant off the track called Tom Thumb and both died, in St.Thomas Ontario of all freaking places.
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Why? Was there a more appropriate place?
 
One of the things that the "Thornton's desperately hungry to win" folk kind of have to reckon with has been his pattern of signing the last few years. It's been one year deals for three seasons now, some signed fairly late into free agency. Even now, announcing he'll be playing with Davos while unsigned in the NHL doesn't really speak to a guy who's super focused on winning a cup.
 
Nik said:
One of the things that the "Thornton's desperately hungry to win" folk kind of have to reckon with has been his pattern of signing the last few years. It's been one year deals for three seasons now, some signed fairly late into free agency. Even now, announcing he'll be playing with Davos while unsigned in the NHL doesn't really speak to a guy who's super focused on winning a cup.
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How does someone who is super focused on winning a cap act?
 
Nik said:
One of the things that the "Thornton's desperately hungry to win" folk kind of have to reckon with has been his pattern of signing the last few years. It's been one year deals for three seasons now, some signed fairly late into free agency.
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I'm really not sure what him signing a 1 year deal vs. a 3 year deal has to do with his desire to win. If anything it just gives his team more flexibility. Also only one of those deals was signed late in free agency, the other two were signed literally the day after free agency opened. And the third one coming late seemed more like a formality than anything, San Jose's coach talked in July about how he expected him back.

Nik said:
Even now, announcing he'll be playing with Davos while unsigned in the NHL doesn't really speak to a guy who's super focused on winning a cup.
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Or it seems like a guy who is so focused on being the best player he can be for the upcoming season that he'd start training for it now instead of hanging out in sunny San Jose.
 
Nik said:
One of the things that the "Thornton's desperately hungry to win" folk kind of have to reckon with has been his pattern of signing the last few years. It's been one year deals for three seasons now, some signed fairly late into free agency. Even now, announcing he'll be playing with Davos while unsigned in the NHL doesn't really speak to a guy who's super focused on winning a cup.
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Wants to play comes to my mind and everyone that plays, wants to win. Desperately though? Well ok I'll take your word for it.
If the season were going to start in a month I'd see your point but there's no time table yet so why is there a hurry to sign? We also don't know what deals are in place and what has been said by Dubas and Keefe, from the Leafs side. My guess is if they've reached out, they made an offer. Who knows how many other teams have reached out. As for the one year deals, so what? Thornton's longest contract was the first one he signed. He hasn't signed a contract longer then 3 years since the first one expired in 2004. Means nothing in the grand scheme.
By him playing with Davos says the exact opposite for me. He's staying in game shape to be ready which is more then most. Sounds committed to me.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I'm really not sure what him signing a 1 year deal vs. a 3 year deal has to do with his desire to win.
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I think it speaks to a general uncertainty about how committed he was to playing, let alone playing somewhere that gave him the best chance at a cup.

CarltonTheBear said:
Or it seems like a guy who is so focused on being the best player he can be for the upcoming season that he'd start training for it now instead of hanging out in sunny San Jose.
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I'm not intending for this to come off as some sort of serious criticism of Joe Thornton as a person. If his perspective on life/work balance doesn't involve uprooting his family to chase a cup then I say bravo to him. Likewise, if his loyalty to San Jose supersedes a win at all cost instinct I think that's admirable.

But realistically, I think you have to weigh the relative training benefits of playing with Davos vs. the training he could do in San Jose vs. the injury risks both places as well. I really don't think Davos would be the "win a cup at all costs" decision there but that's just my read on it.
 
Guilt Trip said:
If the season were going to start in a month I'd see your point but there's no time table yet so why is there a hurry to sign?
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I don't know that there's a hurry, exactly, but teams can and will make other plans in the meantime. Likewise, I think ideally a team signing a 41 year old player and expecting him to be a real contributor for the season would want to get their heads together and come up with what they mutually think is the best plan to get him in the right shape for when the season rolls along. Especially if that's a new team where he doesn't have a prior relationship.
 
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