SAN JOSE – Joe Thornton left an unforgettable mark on the City of San Jose during a 15-year run as the Sharks’ best and most recognizable player. Now he has attained hockey immortality.
Thornton, in his first year of eligibility, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Tuesday, becoming the first player who spent the majority of his NHL career with the Sharks to be given the sport’s highest individual honor.
Known as one of the game’s greatest playmakers and personalities, Thornton, the first overall draft pick by the Boston Bruins in 1997, played 24 NHL seasons until his last game in 2022. Thornton officially retired as a player in Oct. 2023.
Thornton, 45, is sixth on the league’s all-time list with 1,174 games played and is 14th with 1,539 points. As one of the NHL’s premier passers, Thornton remains seventh all-time with 1,109 assists.
The majority of those statistics, and several of Thornton’s most enduring memories, came with the Sharks, who acquired the 6-foot-4 centerman, nicknamed “Jumbo,” from the Bruins on Nov. 30, 2005. As arguably the Sharks franchise’s first true superstar, Thornton, although not winning a Stanley Cup, immediately helped San Jose become one of the NHL’s most successful franchises, on and off the ice.
All-time in Sharks history, Thornton ranks first in assists (804), points per game (0.96), power-play points (402), and plus-minus (+161). He is second all-time in points (1,055) and even-strength points (645), third in games played (1,104), and fourth in goals (251). He also served as the team’s captain from 2010 to 2014.
Thornton is the ninth individual who played with the Sharks to be elected to the Hall, joining Ed Belfour, Rob Blake, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, Jeremy Roenick, Teemu Selanne, Mike Vernon, and Doug Wilson. However, he is the first player who spent the majority of his career in San Jose to be enshrined.
“He meant the world to (San Jose),” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said Tuesday before the Hall of Fame selections were announced. “He changed the franchise here. Him coming here changed everything and brought a little belief in the fan base that we’re going to have a chance to win every single year.”
In 2005-06, Thornton captured the Hart Trophy as MVP and Art Ross Trophy as the league’s scoring leader. Thornton was also a four-time All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist for Canada in 2010. He also helped Canada capture gold at the World Cup of Hockey in 2004 and 2016.
With Thornton, San Jose made the playoffs every year but one between 2005 and 2019, advancing to one Cup Final in 2016 and the Western Conference finals three other years in 2010, 2011, and 2019.
From Dec. 1, 2005, to Thornton’s last game with the team on March 11, 2020, the Sharks had the NHL’s best regular season record at 659-376-125. During those 15 years, sellout crowds at SAP Center were the norm.
In an elaborate ceremony inside the downtown arena last November, Thornton, before a sellout crowd of 17,435, had his No. 19 raised to the rafters, where it hangs next to Patrick Marleau’s No. 12, which was retired in 2023.
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Still looking to win his first Cup, Thornton left the Sharks, who were becoming less competitive, in 2020. He then signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who lost in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, and a one-year deal with the Florida Panthers, who lost in the second round in 2022.
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